


Tell me what love is

by missafairy



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternative Universe - No Island, Eventual Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak, Friendship/Love, Love, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-21
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-05-28 05:51:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 44,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6317089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missafairy/pseuds/missafairy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Olicity AU - single parent. Felicity has a son named Dylan, who is causing lots of problems. Oliver is trying to help his tiny babbling blonde and show her that there are different kinds of love... :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I WILL BE POSTING ONE CHAPTER EVERY TWO WEEKS (hopefully)
> 
> Thanks to awesome tumblr user otpdestroyedmylife for edititng :)
> 
> I think this fandom lacks of single parent fics... I love nice comments so please??? Leave them :)))
> 
> I hope you’ll like it :)

'Can’t make it today. Tell Dylan I’m sorry.'

Felicity read the message and sighed. Once again, she had to tell her 7-year old that he won’t be going with the cinema with his dad.

“Mom, why is he late?” Dylan was jumping impatiently while looking out the window. He adored his father, which Felicity never understood. He barely knew him; Cooper never wanted to take care of his son. He visited him exactly seven times before Dylan’s 7th Birthday. Then when Dylan turned 7 and went to school he started comparing himself to his friends. To Felicity’s displeasure his only best friend was Andrew Diggle, a very cute and polite boy who had both of his parents, an older sister named Sara, and strong bond with his father. He didn’t know other children who had only one parent and she knew he felt worse than Andrew, who kept talking about his happy home, not knowing that it upset his best friend. Dylan begged her to call Cooper so they could spend time together more often. She couldn’t say no to him so she offered her ex-boyfriend to spend some time with his son. He quickly agreed at first, but after a few meetings that Dylan truly loved, Cooper started cancelling them. He made up excuses at first, until today, when he didn’t even bother. Felicity wasn’t sure if she could do this anymore. She wanted the very best for her son, but Cooper was ruining his childhood.

“Call him! We can’t miss the movie!” Felicity’s heart hurt as she watched her dearest son so excited, waving the tickets in the air, and she knew it would hurt even more to see him disappointed. Besides that, lately he has become incredibly rude and Felicity was having a hard time dealing with him.

“You know what honey?” Felicity began, her voice low, “I’ll go with you, okay? Dad texted me, he can’t come today. He’s very sorry.” Felicity saw his face fall. She was about to cry, again. Again because of her ex.

What was wrong with her? She knew now that she should never have told Cooper about the baby. She made a mistake and now she was paying for it. When she told him she was pregnant she didn’t expect him to marry her, but she didn’t expect him to break up with her after a 2-year relationship and walk away without a word. When she finally got a grip and started a new life, on the date Dylan was born, Cooper showed up with a huge and ugly teddy bear. The baby was too small to remember anything, but then her ex showed up the next year and the next year, always on Dylan’s birthday, and only once a year. But that was all it took for the child to understand that there was a father. 

A two-year old Dylan was repeating the word “dad” for about a week. The three-year old didn’t remember and seemed to be meeting “dad” once again. The four-year old kept asking “why” and Felicity’s only reply was to cry her eyes out at night. Then the five- and six-year old assumed it just had to be like that. The seven-year old Dylan was smarter. He knew what a family should look like: two parents and a child. After all, Andrew’s family looked like that, right? Moreover, Andrew also had a sister! So the little boy started asking and pleading and begging for Daddy to come back and finally he did. And it was good. Too good, actually, until it all started turning into a nightmare. Felicity was crying a night after night, and Dylan seemed to do everything just to make her feel worse.

“What? Again? Why mom, why?” Dylan stood in the middle of the room and his mom could see the tears that threatened to fall.

“It’s okay, he’ll be here next time.”

“You said that last time, too,” he opposed.

“Yeah… Dylan, I’m sorry.” She walked up to him and put her hand on his shoulder. 

“Sure you are.”

“I am. I know how much you wanted to go with Dad. You’re happy with him and you know I’d do anything for you to be happy” Felicity was hugging him now so he wouldn’t notice her watery eyes.

“Make Dad come here!”

“I wish I could… but hey, we can have fun together, too. If we hurry we can still go to the cinema,” offered Felicity, hoping he wouldn’t say “I don’t want to go with you” like he did the last time Cooper cancelled at the last minute. She was tired of it. She had no idea why her ex was still setting up meetings if her never wanted to be there.

“You won’t like the movie, but fine, let’s go,” said Dylan and went to grab his jacket. Felicity just sighed, took her purse, and before she put her phone in it, she texted Cooper: Tell him finally. Then she ran after her son pleading that he wouldn’t change his mind and would go with her to the cinema politely. 

On their way, Felicity got another text from Cooper: 'Friday 3pm?'

She texted back: 'Forget about it.'

'He’s my son, too.'

'Stop it! You won’t show up anyway!'

She couldn’t understand how he could not see that he was hurting Dylan. And every time she demanded that him to stop calling he always said that Dylan was his son, too, and she couldn’t tell him what to do. She hated Cooper with her whole heart. She wished he could just disappear from their life.

xxx

Felicity was exhausted. It was 6pm and after a whole day of work she had to pick Dylan from school. She missed the bus and the next one was in 30 minutes so she had to walk to the school in the rain. She was lucky to have an umbrella. 

The front door was already closed so she ran to the gym door., which was where her son would go after regular classes were finished. Well, first he does homework in the library, then goes to the gym where his favorite PE teacher has extra classes for all the children who want to attend. 

The most handsome man to have ever walked the Earth, Oliver Queen, wasn’t actually Dylan’s teacher. He was hired at school for the extra classes only because the mayor of the town wanted every school to be open until late hours. Every day looked the same except for Saturdays - the school was closed, but the gym was opened all day – and Sundays, when Felicity didn’t have to work thanks to her helpful colleague. 

That’s how Felicity was able to work so much to get extra money. Cooper was a quite rich IT specialist, but he never offered to pay any money for Dylan and Felicity wasn’t going to ask. She never graduated college and even with her extra computer skills, she couldn’t get a job in IT. She was a single mom working as a waitress, just like her mother. She always wanted something more, which is why she always studied hard, had the best grades and had the best results at college before she had to quit. It all changed when she held Dylan for the first time. Her mom was by her side when she cried all night telling her that if she could make it, her daughter can make it too.

Felicity entered the gym and immediately saw her son among other 2 kids that were trying to throw a basketball into the basket. Oliver was telling them how to improve so they wouldn’t miss.

“Good evening!” said Felicity when all eyes diverted to her.

—

“Good evening,” replied Oliver, seeing the blond woman. He knew exactly who she was. Dylan’s mom: the always-running-fast-to-work young woman with a bright smile on her face. She was very pretty and seemed very nice and Oliver has even talked to her a few times. 

They first introduced themselves in a not-so-nice circumstance after she had been called to principal’s office when her son got in a fight after he got tired of his annoying classmate calling him names. 

Then they talked on a very warm day on the school play yard. She had come to pick Dylan up and Oliver told her that her son was soon going to become a professional player, but he was not sure what sport should he choose because Dylan’s good at almost anything. She only smiled and said something about her son loves to play with balls, then her face turned red and she started naming all sports that came to her head: basketball, volleyball, softball, football, soccer… and he was pretty amused so he didn’t say anything to stop her. 

It was the truth. Dylan loved playing all of these sports and was really good at them. Oliver was the only person who understood him and could spend time playing with him. Very often, Felicity’s son was the only child in the “After School Care” program. He didn’t mind, he loved going there. And, in Oliver’s opinion, Dylan was the most polite child in the world. 

Felicity wished she could agree, but her relationship with her son had been rocky for the past few months. She knew it was because she didn’t have time for him during the school week and he was used to being on his own. But every time she tried to do something for him he only asked her to call his dad. It had worked for four months. Then Cooper started cancelling the meetings. He always called her or sent her a message wanting her to tell Dylan but he never wanted to talk to his son himself.

It made Felicity mad and told Cooper every single time that she couldn’t tell their son again, or to just not promise him anything, but he never listened. Cooper wasn’t there to be mad at so Dylan was left thinking it was all his mother’s fault. According to the Dylan, his father did everything better. Made pancakes with more chocolate chip, made sweeter tea, bought more presents. The only thing Dylan didn’t understand was that his father never was and never would be there for him.

“Wow, it must be raining really hard,” commented Oliver when he came closer.

“Actually it stopped a while ago.” Felicity smiled and waved to Dylan who made a face and slowly went to the dressing room, his two friends with him.

“How was Dylan today?”

“He’s always an angel,” responded Oliver. For a second he thought Felicity’s smile faded away, but she quickly smiled again.

“I’m glad he’s not making any trouble.”

“Why would he?” asked Oliver. This mysterious woman always seemed to doubt that he’s telling the truth. He didn’t mean to be nosy, but after all of those quick conversations with her he had an impression that something is not right.

“Oh, you know, he’s just a kid…” Felicity hoped she sounded natural. “Kids are strange sometimes, you know?”

“Yeah, but you really don’t have to worry about that,” assured her Oliver. “Are you going to the game on Saturday?”

“What game?” Felicity looked surprised. “Some kind of sport, for sure… Silly me…”

“The soccer game? First this spring… Dylan’s playing, he’s so happy about it.”

“Oh, sure, I start work later this Saturday” replied Felicity wondering why her son didn’t tell her about the game he was so excited for. Then she noticed Dylan walking towards her from the dressing room. “Hey honey, how have you been?”

“Did dad call?” was the first thing Felicity heard instead of “hello” every day this week. She only shook her head in response. As if her talk with Oliver hadn’t been embarrassing enough Dylan, furrowed his eyebrows and started walking towards the exit ignoring her.

“Bye, Dylan!” said Oliver, and the boy replied without turning around. Felicity didn’t even have time to blink before her son was outside shutting the door loudly behind him.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “Goodnight, Mr. Queen.”

“Goodnight,” said Oliver as he watched her run after her son. He had never seen anything like it before, but he started to underst why Mrs. Smoak was so concerned about her son’s behavior. Clearly there was something wrong. Now that he thought about it, he kept hearing Dylan talking about his father. There was a time they went to the zoo, then to the park, or the swimming pool. He barely heard Dylan talk about his mother, though. But he saw this woman almost every day of the week, always smiling, always talkative, but also tired. From what he knew she was working all day long, while was why Dylan was in the after school care almost every day. Oliver knew it wasn’t any of his business, but he was too intrigued to let this go. He was sure that behind the charming smile of this babbling blonde girl, she was hiding something more.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's both sad and sweet... :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello :)   
> My awesome beta otpdestroyedmylife does all the magic and you can read it thanks to her :) 
> 
> Thank you for all likes and nice comments! Every single one means a lot to me :)
> 
> I hope you’ll like it!

On Friday, Felicity finished work early just in case Cooper really wanted to pick Dylan up. The child was getting over his anger and he and Felicity were starting to get along a little better every day. She kept telling him that Cooper hadn’t called or texted, which was true, and she hoped he would slowly forget about his hurt feelings and disappointment and that her ex wouldn’t show up again. It was a very warm day so she decided to slowly walk to her son’s school to pick him up. When she was passing near the playground she noticed a group of children playing so without thinking much about it she went over, thinking it was probably Oliver with his group. She knew she was right when she saw Oliver showing someone how to play badminton. Dylan was playing with Andrew, who was staying after school only on Fridays. Felicity sat on the bench watching the group. After some time, Oliver finished teaching the child how to play and spotted Felicity sitting in the sun.

“Good afternoon, Ms. Smoak,” he said walking up to her.

“Good afternoon,” Felicity instantly smiled.

“Done with work for today?” She nodded and opened her mouth to say something, but he spoke again, “Do you want me to call for Dylan?”

“No, that’s fine, he can still play a while. Do you have a minute? I want to talk to you about something.” When he sat on the bench next to her she had to take a deep breath to calm herself down. “Wow, it sounded weird. Like I’m demanding something which I’m totally not…” She was aware this stranger knew more about her son than she did at the moment. He could see her distress and was pretty sure he knew what she wanted to ask about. "So… Dylan spends a lot of time here and I’m wondering if he talks to you a lot? At home he talks about you everyday.“

“We talk quite a lot, yes,” said Oliver, a little surprised that Ms. Smoak had heard about him from her son. “Sometimes he’s the only kid to stay late and he talks to me about his day, his grades…” Dylan was a babbler, Oliver could name a thousand things he’s talked about.

“Oh, great, can we start with grades please?” asked Felicity.

“Today he got C in English, B in math… Honestly, I don’t remember much more, but he has good or at least decent grades all the time.” Oliver smile and her facial expression made him want to hug her.

“I know you must think that as a mother I should know everything, and you’re right, but this last week we didn’t talk to each other. And… this week is only a little better so I still don’t know a lot.” Felicity started talking, unwittingly defending herself from his judgement. She had to swallow her pride in order to know what was going on with Dylan when he was clearly upset and mad at the whole world. Oliver wanted to say something but, frankly, didn’t know what. He didn’t know what was going on but he couldn’t blame this woman. After all she was sitting here being completely honest with her relationship with her son only because she cared about him and needed to know if he was okay.

“So what about his friends? Two weeks ago he didn’t have many. He adores Andy, though.”

“True… But I wouldn’t worry much, some boys in his age don’t need more friends. Funny thing is, my only friend is Andy’s father…” confessed Oliver.

Felicity laughed. “You know John?”.

“You know John, too?” Oliver grinned showing all of his white teeth.

“Yeah, well… We met after that fight when I met you actually. Sara called the teacher and apparently they thought she had something to do with it, too… I don’t really know… Speak of the devil… Isn’t that John over there?” Felicity was looking at the parking lot and Oliver followed her gaze. John Diggle already saw them, too, and started walking faster.

“Hmm, yes, that’s him. He always picks Andy up at 4:30” Hearing that, Felicity tensed.

“Time runs so fast with someone nice to talk to,” she said, staring at her mobile screen. No missed calls, no messages. She was glad she didn’t tell Dylan Cooper wanted to pick him up from school at 4:00, because that jerk didn’t show up again. This time he didn’t even send a stupid message. Realizing what she had said, Felicity raised her head and met his gaze. Why did she say that? Sure, he was nice, very nice and extremely handsome, but she hoped he didn’t read too much into this. He probably had a girl, more than “probably.” With his looks and charm there was no doubt he had a girl. He didn’t need to feel pity for a poor single mom who might have had a little crush on him. But Oliver only smiled.

“That’s true,” he said. Felicity didn’t have to say anything because Diggle finally walked up to them.

“Hey, Felicity. Oliver,” he said with a huge grin on his face.

“Hello, John!” Felicity felt way more relaxed now with her friend by her side. She met John only a few months ago, but he and his wife were so kind that she instantly started calling them her friends in her head.

“What’s got you so happy?” Asked Oliver.

“We’re going to get a puppy” said John grinning like a child. Andy already spotted his dad and was running towards him, Dylan following. The rest of the children were politely playing, some were talking in the corner so Oliver could talk with his friend and Dylan’s mother for a longer while.

“Yeah, and then somehow you’ll trick me into walking him,” said the teacher and laughed when Diggle said his wife said the same thing.

“Hey dad!”

“Hi, mom,” heard the adults when Andy and Dylan reached them. “Andy is getting a poppy today, can we get one too?”

“We can’t. We don’t want him to stay alone all day, right?” explained Felicity. She didn’t want to mention that in their apartment there was not even enough room for them, let alone a pet.

“Right…” Dylan already had a puppy talk with his mother and Felicity managed to convince him that the dog will be sad being alone in the apartment all day.

“Don’t worry buddy,” said John. “You can always play with our dog. What are you doing after the game on Sunday? We could meet for a dinner,” he asked Felicity.

“Mom please?” pleaded Dylan, taking his mother’s hand.

“Please, Aunt Felicity? I really want to show Dylan my puppy,” begged Andrew. Felicity laughed.

“Okay then, we’d love to visit you,” she said looking at John. “But we’ll be going home now.”

“So will we,” agreed John. “Our dog is waiting for us.” John said goodbye to Oliver and started walking to the car with Andrew where Lyla and Sara waited for them.

“Dylan, did you grab all of your things?” asked Felicity. Her son was holding a backpack, his school clothes shoved in it. Dylan nodded and started zipping the bag trying to push the jeans in.

“So, see you tomorrow at the game…” said Oliver with a smile.

“Yes, I’ll be there. We will be there I mean. Dylan is going to be there for sure. He’s the one playing so… yeah. See you there, Mr. Queen.” Felicity blushed and grabbed her purse from the bench.

“Just Oliver - Mr. Queen sounds a little awkward to me.” Felicity only smiled and nodded. She didn’t want to say anything, worried that she’d start babbling again. This man did something to her and she was aware she was acting like a teenager. Her mother said it was normal in any age, especially normal to Felicity who as a teenager had to grow up really fast a raise her son.

“See you there, Oliver,” she said finally and watched as Oliver slowly walked toward his students, still facing her.

“See you,” he responded and waved goodbye to Dylan. Felicity and the boy started slowly walking down to the sidewalk, heading home.

“How was school?” asked Felicity, looking at her son.

“Okay. Sara has birthday tomorrow and today she brought candy to school to share with her classmates, but she gave me and Andy some, too.” Dylan stopped and started looking for something in his school bag. After a while he pulled out a candy and gave it to his mother. “I left one for you,” he said. Felicity smiled and put her hand on Dylan’s shoulder as they kept walking.

“So it’s Sara’s birthday tomorrow?” she asked a little worried. It meant that tomorrow after the game she should bring a gift for Sara, a child who had everything including a whole, loving family and a puppy.

“Yeah… oh mom, I almost forgot!” Felicity watched as her son pulled out a folded piece of paper from a pocket in his sweat pants.

“What’s that?”

“A summer sports camp! It’s super cool! Mr. Queen said we have to show it to our parents so they could sign us up,” explained Dylan. “Can you sign me up?” Felicity was looking at the paper, more specifically at the price. If her son wanted to go to the camp so badly she would do anything to make it possible. She sighed and started thinking of a plan. Caitlyn and Ronnie said once that they’d be happy to take care of Dylan sometimes. That was her window. She saw an advert earlier today that nearby, a gas station needs a worker for night shifts for a few days in a week.

“I’ll try,” said Felicity and Dylan jumped in excitement.

“Great! Andy said he’ll go for sure. Even Sara wants to go. It will be so much fun, mom!” Listening to her child’s happy babbling as Felicity walked, the sidewalk that lead home seemed to never end. When they finally got home, ate dinner, and started doing homework together, Felicity saw she got a message.

Cooper: damn i forgot

Great, Cooper had to remind himself of their son again.

Felicity: I noticed.

And then her phone rang. Seeing the caller’s ID, she locked herself in the bathroom before answering.

“Yeah?”

“Hey. I want to talk to Dylan,” said Cooper.

“You’re not talking to him. I told you he didn’t know you were supposed to come!” she whispered loudly.

“He’s my son. You have to let me talk to him.” Felicity only sighed.

“You were supposed to tell him that you’re not going to meet him anymore, but not on the phone!”

“I won’t tell him that,” Cooper was how he was, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell his own son he’s not enjoying their meetings as a dad should.

“What then? Just don’t promise him anything, and don’t tell him you’ll meet him, okay?” demanded Felicity.

“Sure.” It was the only response she heard.

“Dylan? Dad wants to talk to you,” shouted Felicity and her son was by her side immediately. She gave him the phone and went to wash the dishes. She used all of her willpower to not stay behind the bathroom door listening because she, unlike Cooper, wanted to play fair. After the talk with his dad, Dylan went to sleep very early, tired after hours spent on the playground. Felicity sat in the kitchen all alone with her thoughts, looking at the summer camp advert.

“Good evening, my name is Felicity Smoak and… are you still looking for a worker for night shifts? I saw an advertisement earlier today. Yeah… Really? That’s great! Not that she’s in the hospital of course! What kind of person would I be! I meant it’s great I can start tomorrow…Yes…Yes, of course. I understand. That’s a job I’m looking for. Thank you! See you tomorrow.” Felicity sighed in relief. Apparently their worker had a car accident and they needed a replacement for the time of her recovery. Three nights per week for two months was just enough because they paid quite a lot. Felicity smiled to herself. If everything went well Dylan would be able to go to the camp. His talk with Cooper worried her a little, because she knew her ex wasn’t a responsible adult, but that could wait until morning. 

Felicity quietly went to the room and gently lay on the couch next to Dylan. She loved her son to no end and never wanted another life. She only wished she could give him everything he wanted. Sure, she bought him all the clothes and shoes he wanted and she was taking him to the bistro she worked in once a week for some ice cream, but he still didn’t have his own room, a pet, any cool toys his friends owned or the swimming classes he wanted this winter… Felicity closed her eyes and begged herself not to cry again. She must have moved abruptly, or taken a loud breath because Dylan woke up a little, just enough to grab her hand with his smaller one.

“Love you mom,” he whispered.

“I love you too, baby boy.”

“Not a baby…” he murmured and fell asleep again. His mom leaned down to kissed his forehead and gently pulled her hand out of his grip to pull up the blanket to cover him.

“Sweet dreams,” she whispered and closed her eyes, now much more calm having him safe and sound by her side, not fighting with him over something Cooper might have said again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading :) I’ll try to update every two weeks. All likes and comments are appreciated :) You can find me on tumblr under the same username :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone :) I’m very excited for this chapter!!! :D Thank you for all nice comments and likes and I hope you’ll comment and like this chapter too :) It makes me smile!!! 
> 
> Tumblr user otpdestroyedmylife edited this chapter and posting wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for her. THANK YOU!!! Okay… so I hope you’ll like it :)

Felicity was sitting on the bleachers rooting, clapping her hands, and shouting Dylan’s name loudly whenever her son was about to gain a point for the team. He was a very good player, she knew it for sure even though she had no idea about sports. She was also involuntarily looking at Oliver from time to time. How could anyone look so good in sport clothes? They weren’t even tight and Felicity wondered what was going on with her. It was probably just the fact that her son liked him so much and was talking about him constantly. It was obvious that Oliver cared about his students, and not in the creepy way. He was asking them about grades, talking about school, favorite sports… Felicity knew Dylan was talking to him about personal things, but she doubted Oliver had ever asked about anything specific. Besides, Diggle knew him and Felicity trusted him.

“Wooo! Andy!” Felicity stood, clapping hands furiously. She could see Andrew’s wide smile from her seat.

“That’s my boy!” said Lyla, sitting back on the bench. Her husband was at home with Sara who was eager to prepare her birthday party.

“They must have been training a lot,” commented Felicity.

“Yes, Oliver said they were training all winter,” answered the other woman and looked at Oliver biting her lip. “We probably should have told you earlier, but… we invited Oliver for today, too. He’s the kids’ favourite uncle and they still haven’t shown him the dog,” explained Lyla. Felicity opened her eyes wide in surprise. She expected guests, but not Oliver. She recently found out that they were close, but never thought she would find her crush object at the dinner with the Diggles. “Felicity?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah, sure. You can invite who you want! Uh… that sounded a little awkward. I only meant that… I feel like I’m only going to make it worse with an explanation,” she said and smiled sadly.

“I know what you meant.” Lyla took a deep breath. John told her Oliver had said that Felicity was pretty and nice and she could clearly see that Felicity was finding Oliver attractive, as well. They were a perfect match. Oliver went through some shitty things in his life and became a little grumpy, but talking with Dylan cheered him up a lot. Felicity seemed to be his light, too. Since the day he met her he kept telling himself that maybe he’d meet her again and again and again. “He’s a good guy… and, unfortunately, bad things happen to good people, but you know that even better than I do.” Felicity wanted to ask what happened, but, after all, Oliver was a stranger to her and Lyla cared about him so Felicity didn’t want to be nosy. She always saw Oliver as a guy who was always smiling and now she started wondering what could have happened and how does he manage to hide it. What she didn’t know was that everyone saw her like that, too. A smiling, babbling, pretty blond girl. No one knew she was crying almost every night since she started having problems with her son because of Cooper.

“Cooper talked to Dylan yesterday,” she said finally.

“What about?”

“I don’t know. Last night he fell asleep very early and today he just didn’t want to say,” said Felicity. “You know, the last two days were perfect, and I’m worried that he’ll get mad at me again.”

“Oliver said your son is a brilliant child and it’s very easy to talk to him so he’ll always help you, I’m sure of it,” offered Lyla.

“Yeah, I just wish I could deal with my son on my own.” Felicity knew her friend didn’t want to hurt her, but Felicity thought she wasn’t good enough and what Lyla said had hurt her. She thought shouldn’t need anyone’s help. She had already talked to Oliver yesterday about her son and that, to her, was embarrassing enough. For the rest of the game, Felicity stared blankly at the field. The team Dylan and Andy were in won 7:4. Nearly a half of the people on the bleachers were cheering, happy with their children. The players were slowly going to the dressing rooms and Felicity and Lyla waited for their sons and then all four of them went to Sara’s small birthday party. Oliver joined them after half an hour.

“Dino! Come on, let them eat something,” said John, looking at children and Oliver who were playing with the small cute dog.

“In a minute, dad!” shouted Sara, laughing when Dino adorably laid on the floor and stretched, titling his head sweetly.

“Oliver, at least you leave the dog and join us adults in a conversation.”

“Fine,” said Oliver getting up from the floor. “We’re not done yet, Dino! I’ll cuddle with you later,” he said and left the room to follow Digg into the living room.

“Hey ladies, the best coach on Earth finally honoured us,” announced Diggle and winked. Oliver decided to play the role.

“Well yes, where is the crowd of my fans?” He smiled widely and his eyes landed on Felicity. She was looking up at him with a smile that warmed his heart.

“It was a nice game,” admitted Felicity.

“Nice? They were playing like professionals,” said Oliver proudly, still smiling.

‘Great’ thought Felicity. 'I managed to offend him by saying just one sentence. What was I supposed to say?’ She only knew they won and that her son gained a few points for the team. If she had only known earlier that Oliver was going to be here she would have never agreed to come. She didn’t need any more mortifying memories in her life. Oliver was far from being offended though. In fact, he didn’t even notice her distress and sat in the chair next to her. She was amusing him and he craved her company. He didn’t know why this woman was so shy, he thought that with her look and charm she should be confident, at least among friends.

“Maybe you want some juice?” he asked Felicity, taking a pot of orange juice from the table.

“Yes, please.”

“So, Oliver, tell me when the next big game is,” said John getting comfortable on his chair.

“Oh please, don’t even ask,” pleaded Oliver. “I have no idea. Should be soon because the kids really want it, but honestly I have to spend some time organising the camp. Lots of paperwork. You can’t even imagine!”

“Oh, you’d better do it well; both of our kids want to go,” laughed Lyla.

“And Dylan, too,” added Felicity. “He’s been talking about it a lot since yesterday.” Her last words drowned in a noise of John’s phone. He quickly excused herself and left the room.

“I’ll go call the little dog lovers, they need to eat,” said his wife and left too, leaving Oliver and Felicity alone. Felicity was staring at her glass wondering if her friends did it on purpose. John said a couple of times that not all guys are like Cooper and that she should try again if she likes someone. After Cooper, Felicity didn’t date anymore. She met a few really nice men that quickly became her friends and she really liked talking to them, but she stayed away, worrying that any attempt at a relationship could affect Dylan badly.

“Deep in thoughts, Mrs. Smoak?” asked Oliver, trying to break the awkward silence.

“Miss Smoak, actually. My mother iss Mrs. Smoak and I know it’s strange to some people that I never got married so… um, you know, because I have Dylan…” said Felicity. “I’m… a miss, but nevermind. If I get to call you Oliver you call me Felicity. Just Felicity. Quite a long name, but what can I do? It’s fair enough to call me Felicity, right?” He smiled at her kindly and Felicity felt at ease again. She liked talking to Oliver, sometimes she had to talk to him about personal problems that required swallowing her pride, but he was so understanding that she didn’t feel as awkward as she thought she should.

“Fair enough,” repeated Oliver. “Are you nervous or do you always talk this much?”

“I tend to babble a lot all the time. But I admit I’m a little nervous. I found a quite well-paying night job and tonight is my first time so I’m freaking out… You know, I have to present well…” Felicity opened her eyes wide seeing Oliver’s grin. “I mean… I work on a night shift. At a gas station selling… gas and hot dogs and things.”

“I thought you are a waitress?” said Oliver furrowing his eyebrows. Was it possible that she got fired? Of course it was…

“I am, but I found an extra job for two months. It’s only a few nights per week. My friends are getting married soon and are already thinking of babies and they said they could practice being responsible by taking care of Dylan,” laughed Felicity. She knew Caitlin only said so for Felicity not to feel bad for leaving Dylan with them. She also knew that Ronnie was watching cartoons with him until way too late night hours. So very responsible…

“Don’t get me wrong, but… if you ever need anything I can also take care of Dylan,” offered Oliver. He didn’t want her to think that he thinks she needed any help. He knew single mothers… overreacted sometimes when they heard about help being offering. “Drive him home, stay for a while… I may not look like a daddy type, but I have some experience.” Felicity raised her brows. She never thought about Oliver having children.

“Really?”

“Yeah, I have a sister. She’s nine years younger than me. She was 12 when I became her legal guardian,” explained Oliver. He had never told anyone about it, except Diggle.

“Oh…” Felicity didn’t manage to say anything else, because Lyla and 3 kids entered the room laughing loudly.

“Mom, Dino is so funny!” Dylan sat between his mom and Andy. “Can I film him later? I want to show Aunt Cait and Uncle Ronnie.”

“I’m not the right person to ask,” responded Felicity and looked at John who returned after the phone call.

“Sure you can, buddy! And after the dinner we’ll go on walk with him, okay?” said Diggle and looked at his wife who nodded.

“Yeah, but I have to stay to prepare the cake and other sweets… and you, honey, could help me” Lyla was looking at her husband expectantly and a second later Oliver started laughing quietly.

“I knew you’d find a reason to make me walk the dog, but I didn’t expect that…” Oliver whispered and looked at Felicity. He knew she was also suspecting their friends had a hidden purpose for all of that. He was also surprised with himself that he didn’t mind. Now, knowing for sure that she was not married, he didn’t feel bad for having a crush on her. He still didn’t know if she was seeing anyone but John and Lyla knew her very well and although they never spoke of her to him they must have known that she was single. Dylan’s father was the only problem. According to Dylan, his father was wonderful. Caring, rich, kind… What Oliver didn’t understand was why Felicity had to find another job. If Dylan’s father was as rich as Dylan said, he should at least help her out in emergency situations, right? And now this petite blond girl was taking night shifts, stressing herself out because of a new job. Felicity’s cheeks were covered with a beautiful blush and she only smiled at him and shook her head. Yeah, she didn’t expect that either. The Diggles were so subtle…

“Do you want us to take the kids, tough?” asked Felicity innocently, looking at Lyla. She was a little angry, but at least she could spend some time with Oliver and she really liked him. He didn’t look like he was annoyed with the situation and she took it as a good sign. And if the odds were in her favour she may not embarrass herself on the short walk.

“Mmmm… Yeah?” Lyla suddenly found her potatoes very interesting and Felicity decided to give up. Her friends loved Oliver, she knew that. It meant he was a good guy, just like Lyla said at the game. And, indeed, something bad had to happen to him. According to what he said he had to take care of his sister. It couldn’t have been easy, Felicity imagined. Taking care of a twelve year old who apparently lost both parents would be impossible to some young adults.

“Mommy, we are done eating?” asked Sara, jumping in her chair. She was looking at her mother, smiling from ear to ear.

“Are Uncle Oliver and Aunt Felicity done eating, too?”

“I am…” said Oliver. “Lyla you cook like a goddess.”

“That’s true,” admitted Felicity. “Just a minute, you can go get the dog, I’ll be right there,” she promised, quickly finishing her meal.

xxx

Sara was proudly holding the leash and Dino was doing everything but walking politely by her side. Andrew was trying to bribe him with snacks, but Dino was jumping around like crazy. He wasn’t big, so it wasn’t difficult for the small girl to hold him. Dylan was walking next to them filming the dog with Felicity’s phone.

“How old is your sister now?” asked Felicity out of curiosity.

“20. She’ll be 21 in December,” responded Oliver. “She grew up so fast… Not that long ago I was thinking of what to get her for 16th birthday.”

“Kids do that. Grow up fast, I mean. One day you’re excited about their first word and first steps and a moment later they say ‘mom, I’m not a baby’ or ‘stop kissing me, it’s gross’” laughed Felicity bitterly.

“Dylan says that?”

“Yeah… I can’t even kiss him goodnight anymore unless he’s asleep,” she complained. They walked in a comfortable silence. Dino had gotten tired and was now laying on the grass. Sara, her brother, and Dylan were petting him.

“Did you know I was going to be here?” asked Oliver.

“Um… Excuse me?”

“John invited you yesterday, I heard it, I knew you’re going to come. Did you know I was going to be here?”

“I found out at the game today,” said Felicity. “I didn’t know that anyone else was invited. I just thought we’d see the dog, Dylan would play a little and… that’s it. Later on, Dylan told me it was Sara’s birthday…” Oliver sighed. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. I’m just thinking.”

“About why they want us hook up? Me too, and I have no idea,” confessed Felicity. Oliver laughed quietly.

“Wow, you’re quite… straightforward,” he noticed.

“Sorry, I just thought that was what you were thinking about.” Felicity was nervous and she could feel her cheeks are burning.

“It was. I’ve had a fair amount of bad dates and… bad relationship choices in the past few years. John knows about most of them and apparently wants to help,” Oliver shared his thoughts with her.

“I know, right! I mean… I can’t believe I’m going to tell you this, but Cooper, Dylan’s father, was my first and last boyfriend.” Felicity’s cheeks were red and she fought the urge to run away. She felt that what she said meant either Oliver thought that she was incredibly inexperienced or that during the last 7 years she only had one night stands. “Lyla knew that and started convincing me that not all men are jerks,” she added.

“Well, if John is trying to convince me that women are not awful and Lyla is trying to convince you that not all men are jerks then… maybe they are right?” wondered Oliver with a smile.

“Hmm, maybe. Are you going to do anything about it?” Was she actually flirting?! She couldn’t believe she just said that! She blushed deep red and felt the urge to punch herself in the face. Oliver didn’t think twice.

“I’m going to ask you out,” he said with a grin. “Do you want to go out with me? A date, in a nice restaurant, sometime when you’re not at work.”

“I want to! I feel like the only restaurant I’ve ever been to is Big Belly Burger,” she laughed. “And the bistro I’m working at, but I’m not sure if it counts.”

“Next Saturday?”

“Sunday maybe? If everything goes well tonight I’m going to the work night shift next Saturday,” said Felicity.

“Sunday sounds good. 7 pm? I’ll pick you up, just tell me where from,” offered Oliver.

“I’ll text you the address,” she said smiling. After a while of watching the children and Dino she sighed.

“What?” Oliver looking at her. Felicity didn’t know what to say. Did he just ask her out out of pity? Or because Diggle wanted him to? She shouldn’t have said yes. She never could have expected that such a handsome man would ever even look at her. She hadn’t seen a hairdresser in ages, her hair was always up in a high ponytail, and probably every other woman would laugh at her makeup and clothes. She just didn’t have the time or the money for that. She had to buy Dylan new clothes all the time because he was growing up really fast.

Felicity finally spoke, “I think we should be going back,” and stood up from a bench they were sitting on.

“Yeah, Sara probably can’t wait for the cake,” added Oliver and called the birthday girl and the boys.

“Uncle Oliver, will you carry me?” pleaded Sara, tugging Oliver’s arm.

Oliver laughed. “No way, you’re too heavy!” He had also hoped to get to talk to Felicity alone a little longer.

“But… but it’s my birthday,” lamented Sara. “And you are the strongest uncle I have!” At that declaration, Oliver didn’t have a choice but to pick her up.

“Well, it looks like you are the best uncle in the world,” Felicity remarked. Everything Lyla told her about him seemed to be true. Now he only had to show up for their date next week and just maybe she would regain her faith in men.

“The strongest one, for sure,” replied Oliver with a smile.

“Can you carry me too Uncle Ollie?” Andrew asked, his big brown eyes filled with hope.

“Sure, I’ll carry Sara for a few more minutes and then it’s your turn, okay?”

“Yes! I’m not as heavy as Sara, I promise!” Sara laughed, doubting her brother’s opinion. Dylan was proudly holding Dino on the leash and was walking by his mother’s side. Oliver, Sara, and Andy stayed a little behind and now Felicity had the opportunity to talk to her son.

“So… Dylan,” started Felicity. “Dad called you yesterday. What did he want?”

“Nothing,” Dylan responded, but then adverted his face from her.

“Nothing? You talked a little too long for nothing,” she said, but it didn’t prompt any kind of reaction from Dylan. He seemed to be preoccupied with Dino, but Felicity knew better. “Did he say something about a meeting?”

“Yeah, maybe.”

“But you have to tell me,” said Felicity quietly. She was seriously concerned now. How could Cooper talk to Dylan about a meeting without telling her first?

“No, I don’t,” opposed Dylan.

“What do you mean you don’t?” Felicity started walking faster not wanting Oliver to hear any of this. “I am your mom and you need to tell me everything, everything that concerns your father. That was the deal,” she said firmly.

“But dad said I don’t have to.” Dylan sounded confused. 

Felicity sighed. Sure, it wasn’t said that Dylan was telling her the truth, but she could have expected such a thing from her ex. He was the furthest thing from a responsible father. She had never told Dylan anything bad about Cooper. Never said anything about his stupidity and she always covering for that stupid jerk so that Dylan wouldn’t feel unloved… And now she was finding out that Cooper was encouraging their son to keep secrets from her?

“What exactly did he say?” she asked, now very uncertain of her voice.

“That I don’t have to tell you things. Because whenever you talk to him you’re angry. And now he… but I can’t tell you mom!” Dino got tired of walking so fast and both he and Dylan had to slow down. 

Oliver chased them after a short while and all of them started walking towards the Diggles house. Everyone except Felicity were laughing. She was walking quietly, answering Oliver’s questions from time to time but he quickly noticed a change in her behaviour and left her to her own thoughts. The rest of Sara’s birthday party was very nice, even for Felicity. Dylan stopped acting up as soon as she stopped asking him about Cooper. She talked to him about Dino and then played with the dog and the kids for a long while.

“Dylan?” called Felicity. “It’s time to go.”

“No, Mommy! Not yet!”

“It’s evening already, you have a sleepover with Aunt Cait and with Uncle Ronnie. Did you forget?” wondered Felicity.

“Oh, yeah! I have to show them how cute Dino is!” Dylan ran to Andy’s room to help his friend clean the floor from all the toys they had played with.

Oliver walked over to her. “I can drive you wherever you want,” he offered. “I should get going, too, so…”

“No, no, thank you.” Felicity smiled at him while shaking her head. “We’ll take the bus, it’s only a few minutes.” Felicity glanced at the clock on the wall.

“When does your shift start?”

“Actually, it starts at 10:00, but today I have to be there at 8:00 to learn my way around…” explained Felicity.

“It’s faster and more comfortable to go by car. Especially with all those bags,” reasoned Oliver, pointing at Dylan’s backpack with his sports clothes plus the other bag Felicity carried with her son’s things for the sleepover. Her purse was also still hanging on the chair in the living room.

Felicity laughed and said, “I’m used to carry many more bags.” She often did huge shopping trips before picking Dylan up from school. Wanting to be the best mom in the world she usually carried Dylan’s backpack, as well.

“Yeah, I’ve noticed.” There were days when Oliver wanted to offer her a ride he’d see her walking - almost running - around with her purse, all of her bags, plus Dylan’s stuff. He’d even seen her carrying the not-so-small boy a few times when he grazed his leg badly or was too tired to walk. He wondered how she did that being so small and skinny, but he knew that love made you do impossible things. That’s how he ran half of the city in a record time, somehow not getting hit by any car when he got a call his sister is in the hospital and the traffic jam was too bad to drive through the main street in less than an hour. After that he couldn’t breathe normally for about a week and decided to start working out every day. “My offer still stands.” He smiled kindly at her and went to Andy’s room to help with the toys.

“So?” Felicity heard Lyla’s excited voice. “What do you think?”

“About… What exactly?”

“Oliver, of course! How was the walk? I hope kids didn’t bother you.” Hearing his wife John came over, too. Felicity couldn’t believe this situation was even real!

“No, they were angels,” answered Felicity, avoiding the original question.

“Oh, come on! He’s a good guy, right?” said John and smiled at her.

“And you are the worst matchmakers ever!” whispered Felicity loudly. “He’s your best friend, right?” She walked up to the door and closed it. “Don’t you think he deserves someone else? A nice girl with no emotional baggage, not a broke single mom who can’t handle her stupid ex!” Felicity felt like crying, but she stood her ground, head held high. Meeting her gaze John lowered her head.

“You are a nice girl!” said Lyla. “And you are the strongest person I’ve ever met. And you can handle with whatever Cooper did this time,” she added assuringly.

“Felicity, I’m sorry,” said John. “I know it was not at all subtle, but it just seemed to be a good idea. I’ve known Oliver for a long time and I want the best for him. I haven’t known you long at all but I care for you enough to tell you that I want all the best for you, too” confessed John. Felicity suddenly felt bad for yelling at them and now she felt burning tears behind her eyelids and she fought to stop them from falling.

“Sorry,” she whispered. “I have to go now.” Felicity walked out of the room and called for Dylan.

“Mom, it’s raining really bad,” complained Dylan, who was looking out the window with Sara. The sound of raindrops hit Felicity’s ears and she sighed helplessly.

“Oliver… does the offer still stand?” asked Felicity, and worried her lower lip between her teeth.

“Absolutely.” He smiled and took one of the bags from her. They said goodbye to the Diggles and Oliver hugged Sara and Andy once more. “Wait a minute, I forgot my paintings from the kitchen counter,” said Oliver and went to look for childrens’ paintings that he got today. John went after him.

“Thanks for coming,” said Diggle, standing in the kitchen with his friend.

“Anytime. And I think you can keep trying to play matchmaker me with Felicity,” grinned Oliver.

“Yeah, sorry about that. Lyla couldn’t help herself,” explained John.

“Do you think she knows?”

“I don’t think so. But she’s not a gold digger, I am sure of that.” John followed Oliver to the door where Lyla was talking to Felicity. They actually thought it might work. They could see from a mile away the way those two looked at each other. Now Oliver only had to convince Felicity and Felicity had to feel confident enough to make him want to stay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading!!! :) You can find me on tumblr as missfsmoak, see you there :)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello :) I'm very, very sorry it took so long :( I hope you're still there and that you'll enjoy this chapter. Thank you for all kudos and bookmarks and nice messgaes, I can't say how much I appreciate them. This chapter was edited by awesome tumblr user otpdestroyedmylife. Thanks, darling :) So yeah I don't want to make this any longer. Enjoy :) Let me know what you thought.

Felicity was looking at her reflection in the mirror. She hadn’t felt so pretty in years. She wore a nice indigo dress she bought on a sale last week; it was for Caitlyn and Ronnie’s wedding, but she thought it wouldn’t hurt to wear on her huge date today. After years of being in a constant fight with Cooper and not being able to rely on him, Felicity had some serious trust issues - especially where men were concerned. 

She had waited for her date with Oliver for the last week, not sleeping at night from imagining too many scenarios. At first it was ‘what am I going to do when he finally comes to pick me up?’ but then it quickly turned into ‘I’m going to wait here forever and he won’t come and tomorrow he’s going to laugh at me when I come to pick up Dylan after school.’ She sighed and ran her hands through her long, slightly curled blond hair that she had let out of its ponytail. After everything she’d done for Dylan these past years, she could have a night off, right? She had every right to wait by the door like a silly teenage girl. 

Oliver should be there in 10 minutes. Felicity slowly walked towards the window trying to see if he was already in front of her flat. She didn’t see the car he drove but she also wasn’t sure if he was going to go by car or a cab. She took her black classic heels off and sat on the windowsill, her feet dangling in the air. Did time stop or what? She looked out to see if a taxi was parking in the lot; as usual, only a few cabs were parked there. A small bus was waiting at the bus stop with people trying to get into the crowded place. Her neighbour was looking for her cat near the garbage cans, the other neighbour was walking his dog… Felicity was just staring outside trying not to think about how nervous she was. She jumped when she heard the doorbell and almost ran to the door to open it.

“Good evening,” said Oliver as she opened the door facing him. He was wearing a grey suit and a dark blue tie that made his eyes look bigger and brighter. She opened her mouth in a soundless gasp. She had only ever seen him in sweats; that’s what he wore at work to play sports with the children in the after school care. Last week she saw him in jeans, but a suit? Never. Shame, because he looked like an actual greek god of sex. She wasn’t even ashamed by her thoughts. “You look great,” he added.

“Wow, you’re really punctua!l” said Felicity trying not to stare at her date. “I mean, hey! Hello. Um… good evening. Thanks and… I’m good to go!” She walked through the door and immediately jumped back into the apartment. “I left my shoes by the window when I was waiting for you. Silly, huh? Yeah, I was totally looking outside to see if you’re coming. And yet I didn’t see you. If I did I would have totally put my heels on before I opened the door…” said Felicity while walking to grab her heels.

“Felicity?”

“Yeah?” she asked when she was standing in front of him again. Did he change his mind already hearing how pathetic she sounded?

“You’re remarkable,” said Oliver looking her deep in the eyes, smiling. This woman did something to him and he knew it wasn’t her looks that got to him. Sure, she was very pretty, but in his rather adventurous love life he had had prettier girlfriends, with bigger feminine curves and softer hair… Felicity was so graceful and bright, though, that she seemed to be more attractive than any woman he’d ever dated before. The delicate blush on her cheeks and neck was tempting and her babbling made him smile like nothing else. She looked so honest and fragile. He knew he couldn’t judge her by looks because he already knew she was stronger than she looked. She was a super badass mom and despite her bad days she never lost her spirit. Oliver didn’t know it yet, but her strength was what made him intrigued. He was watched all the parents pick up their children from school every day and only this one caught his eye. Hearing his comment, she quickly adverted her sight and laughed quietly.

“Thank you.” She fought the urge to pull him towards her by his tie, which was tilted a little to one side.

“Are you ready to go now?”

“Yeah, totally. Heels on, ready to go.” Felicity smiled and followed Oliver to the cab. In her head she promises to kick herself if she uses the word 'totally’ again tonight.

After a short drive, they arrived. As soon as Felicity got out of the car she felt uncomfortable. They were standing in front of the most beautiful building Felicity has ever seen. It was very modern and looked like it was made of marble and mirrors. She had been in this part of Starling City only once on a walk with then-baby Dylan because she had gotten lost. Seeing all the shop windows and restaurants she quickly realised it was not a place for her. And now there she was, entering one of the fancy places by Oliver’s side. Seeing the waitress just behind the door, she suddenly felt like an ugly duckling amongst swans. Her dress seemed to be too casual, too plain for this beautiful place. Oliver walked in with confidence, smiling at the elegant girl who showed him to their table. It was located near a huge window and, like every table, was secluded from the others so the guests could enjoy the privacy. Right after they sat the waitress gave them their menus.

“May I get you anything to drink?” she asked. Felicity could feel her eyes on her dress which suddenly felt too tight.

“How about a bottle of wine? Felicity?” Oliver’s date only smiled and nodded, she was too nervous to say anything. Besides, with her babbling problem she worried it would come out very wrong.

“Do you prefer red or white?” He asked again and Felicity considered nodding for a while, but finally took a deep breath and said she prefers red. The waitress left and Felicity felt a little better without a gorgeous woman staring at her with pity. “What are you going to order? I’m thinking sushi or carpaccio.”

“Um… Well…” Felicity was staring at the menu, not really knowing what kind of meals were hidden behind the funny names. “Me, too,” she smiled nervously. Okay, she knew what sushi was, but the last thing she needed tonight was raw fish. She didn’t understand why couldn’t they go for a grilled steak.

“Who did you leave Dylan with?” Oliver could feel her distress and hoped talking about Dylan would relax her a little. He couldn’t have been more wrong.

“With Cooper. I mean he came to take Dylan to go see a movie, but he was late. Of course, poor kid thought he was going to watch the pirate… thing… something he waited for all week, but Cooper fucked up again.” Felicity shut her mouth quickly. She hadn’t used a curse word for ages! “I mean… was late again. Like always. Dylan cried his eyes out, but the jerk finally showed up and they went to Big Belly. He’s staying with my friends later, because Cooper can’t handle his own son for longer than an hour…” The waitress brought the wine and Felicity promised herself not to open her mouth again.

“I’m sorry to hear that…” whispered Oliver.

“No, I’m sorry. I can’t believe I started talking about it.” Felicity started playing with the edge of her dress, trying to avoid Oliver’s gaze.

“Don’t apologize, that’s what dates are for,” said Oliver. “To get to know one another.” And then it hit her. She didn’t know him at all. How could a teacher afford this place? She glanced at the wine bottle Oliver shouldn’t have been able to afford, let alone in such a fancy place. He probably knew about her financial problems and invited her here only to embarrass her. Or was he one of those guys who left the girls with the bill? Felicity froze at the thought, but then reminded herself that John and Lyla knew Oliver and trusted him with everything; he wouldn’t do anything like that. That thought calmed her a little, but maybe she was wrong about them, too? Did he win a lottery? Or maybe his family owned this restaurant? That would mean he had lower prices… “And Cooper has been a huge part of your life.”

“What?” Felicity was pulled from her thoughts and wasn’t sure if she had heard correctly.

“I’m saying Cooper was a huge part of your life. So it’s okay to talk about him…”

“Excuse me, may I take your order?” The waitress appeared out of nowhere and Felicity almost jumped in her seat. That girl’s shirt cost more than Felicity’s dress and shoes all together, no doubt.

“I think so…” responded Oliver after Felicity nodded. “What kind of sushi would you recommend today?” Felicity didn’t understand a word of what the waitress said, but Oliver apparently did because the waitress started writing something down.

“For you ma'am?” Felicity furrowed her brows and repeated the other dish Oliver had been considering.

“Carpaccio.” It couldn’t be bad, right? It was a good restaurant after all. They sat in an awkward silence with Oliver trying to start a conversation from time to time, except Felicity was answering his questions shortly and not giving them any chances for an actual talk. She hated this place. With the eyes of her imagination she could saw other customers look at her with disapproval. Their sparkly jewels and labeled dresses were making her want to run away. And when she saw what she had ordered she almost did run away. She still gave it a chance, even though raw meat wasn’t her thing for sure, but Felicity tried to politely eat it. Now she knew what Dylan felt eating broccoli.

“Don’t you like it, Felicity?” asked Oliver, who desperately wanted to save their date before it was completely ruined. He didn’t know why she was acting like this. Maybe it was all too much? He never thought of that when he booked this restaurant. He had wanted to take her somewhere she’d never been before. It was the best restaurant in town and Oliver wanted to take this special girl to a special place. He overstepped; now he knew it and hated himself for it. She must have felt awful, he couldn’t even imagine. After all she was working days and nights for her and her child, didn’t have a car, and was walking most of the time to avoid using the bus. He had always been rich, always went to places like this, and, being 30 years old, for the first time in his life, he realised that not everyone like these kind of places.

“It’s fine,” she said faking a smile and kept digging her fork into the meal. She didn’t know if he did this on purpose or not but she just couldn’t sit there any longer. She didn’t know what had gotten into her. She was too hot and was sweating and the hem of her dress was surely now wrinkled since Felicity was squeezing it. What if he tried to make it the best date she’s ever had? She wasn’t sure anymore. The rational part of her was telling her to calm down and turn it all into a joke, but her restless part with the trust issues kept telling her he was laughing at her right now. She knew it was nonsense but she just couldn’t fight it. “It’s fine, really. Don’t worry about me; it’s just a bit hot in here,” she tried to explain herself.

“It’s so not fine… I’m sorry,” he said not wanting to keep it going anymore. “I… I guess you don’t want a dessert?” he asked but he already knew the answer. She shook her head and when she looked at him she felt even worse. He was sad. And didn’t even try to hide it. Why hide it anyway? He spent an unimaginable amount of money on this date and she acted like a heartless bitch.

“I didn’t really eat anything,” said Felicity and lifted her plate. “Do you want some… meat?” She asked hopelessly. “It’s so gross,” she added whispering and blinking rapidly.

“It’s delicious!” Oliver protested and lifted his plate, too. “But try this,” he said and put his sushi plate in front of her.

“Wow, your fish in weed is pretty good,” commented Felicity with a smile. Oliver laughed and looked her in the eyes.

“This… my dear is an octopus,” he corrected her. “A fish is… here,” he said, pointing at another piece on the sushi plate.

“Yum! Good octopus.” Felicity smiled and felt a little better knowing he hadn’t wanted to embarrass her.

“Your meat was good too,” said Oliver, looking at his empty plate. “Still no to dessert?”

“Absolutely no… but I’d gladly finish the wine,” whispered Felicity sadly and Oliver nodded. She waited for him to pay the bill and together they went outside. It was already dark, but still quite warm. The first stars were shining on the sky and the huge moon was planted among them.

“I’ll call us a cab,” offered Oliver and started looking for his phone.

“You know, I’d rather walk,” protested Felicity and realised how it must have sounded like when Oliver sighed sadly.

“It’s dark already.”

“But the evening is pretty and warm,” she said trying to convince him.

“We can go separately, no problem. I’ll get you a cab and then…”

“Oliver,” she interrupted him. “That’s not it… Maybe you want to walk me? It’s not far,” she said. “If you don’t wanna run away from me, that is.”

“I thought you wanted that,” he whispered. “I admit it was a pretty shitty date.”

“Not everyone belongs in places like this one. My point is that it wasn’t you that I was running away from. Usually I’m better at conversations, right?” She asked hoping that he felt the same way as her: that he was the easiest person in the world to talk to.

“Much better,” he laughed. “Let’s go, then,” Oliver was relieved that just maybe their date wasn’t ruined, after all.

“He was never a big part of my life,” said Felicity.

“Excuse me?”

“You said Cooper was a huge part of my life and that it was okay to talk about that,” she reminded him. “But he never was. Sure, we were high school sweethearts and we went to college together, but it was a week… maybe two into college when I found out I was pregnant. And… he said some… some things to me and I just didn’t show up there anymore. I had to find a job, start over. That’s why I came to Starling. I didn’t expect him to marry me or anything, I just never expected that he would do what he did,” Felicity finished with a sigh. She could remember his voice saying it was her fault and that she got herself into the mess so she had to deal with it on her own. That it probably wasn’t even his child…

“I’m sorry,” said Oliver quietly.

“Yeah… and then he appeared out of nowhere on Dylan’s birthday. And he kept doing that. He came to us one day a year with a huge gift that I could never afford. And I don’t really know why Dylan adores him. He barely gets to see him. Cooper called him last week to talk and promised Dylan they would meet soon, but it’s been a week and he hasn’t called back. And today… I told you. The poor kid checks my phone every day, doesn’t believe me when I say he didn’t call or text! Why would I lie?” Felicity sighed and looked away at the park on their right. Oliver didn’t know what to say so he slowed down and hesitantly took her hand.

“Would you give me another chance and let me make up for the date you had with me tonight?”

“Mhm… but I’m a little worried what you’re thinking for next time.” She giggled and let him lead her to a bench near the river that ran across the park. She was enjoying his presence, and being away from the fancy restaurants and shops made her feel more comfortable. “Speaking of a date… How much money did you spend in that restaurant?” Felicity asked in the hopes that Oliver would open up a little and finally tell her what was going on. She felt like she was an open book and he was an uncovered mystery with a wallet full of golden credit cards.

“On the worst date you’ve ever had in your life? Quite a lot, yeah,” he laughed. “I’m an idiot. I wanted to take you to a nice place, somewhere where you’ve never been… Somewhere fancy. I’m sorry, Felicity. I’m so used to places like this that I had no idea someone may not like it,” confessed Oliver. Felicity only smiled waiting for more of his story. “Have you heard of Queen Consolidated?”

“The world’s most famous company franchise? Who hasn’t heard of… Wait, it can’t be!” she almost shouted. She already didn’t know why a man like Oliver had wanted to be friends with her and now that she found out who he really was her jaw dropped.

“Well, it is. I am the Oliver Queen. The playboy billionaire owner of the family business,” admitted Oliver. It meant that nine years ago both of his parents died in a terrible accident. It all made sense now. That was why he was taking care of his younger sister at the age of 21 and had experience in parenting.

“I can’t believe I didn’t realised,” said Felicity and Oliver knew she was speaking the truth. “You seem so…” She hesitated, not knowing which word to use.

“Normal?” offered Oliver as he seated himself beside her on the bench.

“Well… yeah? I didn’t want to say it, but that is what I was thinking,” she confessed.

“I was an asshole as a teenager. I was partying, drinking, sleeping around. But… when the time came, I had to grew up; take care of my sister, Thea. Our parents died… One day everything was perfect, I was partying, she was dressing up her dolls, and then it felt like the whole world collapsed. She didn’t know how to deal with it and I had to be strong for her. I met John and he helped me to stay sane. I opened a nightclub with my friend Tommy and started working there. With time, John trusted me enough to leave Sara with me so I was a babysitter by day and a barman at night. Work helped a lot to keep my head clean. In meantime, I was pulling Thea out of trouble… And, finally, she was able to replace me at the club and I took a few pedagogical courses. I’m qualified to work at the after school care, but I’m not a teacher… Not that anyone has to know that.” He winked at her with a smile and she smiled back. “Are you hungry?”

“I’m good.”

“I know where to find a truck with good hot dogs,” he said and Felicity giggled. “Right there.” He pointed a truck behind a nearby tree.

“You know how to convince a woman,” she said as she stook up.

“You’re not looking at me differently,” said Oliver after they bought their hot dogs and were seated on their bench again.

“Why would I?” asked Felicity hesitantly. To her, he was a rich man since the first day she saw him. Now that she knew just how rich he really was didn’t really make a difference except that she couldn’t imagine his current bank account number.

“Because of what I told you. About myself…you know…” Oliver was used to be treated differently by women when they found out who he was. That is, if they didn’t already know beforehand. For most of them, the only real reason they dated him was his good looks and money. He had worried that Felicity would react to his confession like she had reacted to the expensive restaurant. It was the complete opposite of what he was used to. And now Felicity… didn’t react at all. He had to find out why.

“I’m still thinking about it,” said Felicity while looking out at the river. “I think I liked you before you told me this. And you don’t behave differently now… and maybe it’s strange, but I don’t feel like I should look at you differently.”

“You definitely shouldn’t,” assured Oliver. “And I want you to know that I like you, too. And I’m wondering… if you’d let me take you to see a movie next week?” Oliver silently prayed she would say yes.

“After I ruined your attempt at a perfect date you still want to date me?” she wondered out loud and smiled when she saw the grin on his face.

“If you have to know, I’ve had worse first dates,” he said and this time, Felicity was the one to reach out to grab his hand with hers.

“If you have to know, it was my first real date,” whispered Felicity and Oliver had to summon all of his willpower not to kiss her right then.

“Does that mean I am your first real boyfriend?” Felicity raised her brows at hearing that.

“Um… are you?” she asked, a little confused. She didn’t know a lot about dating, but she wasn’t sure a guy became a boyfriend after one date.

“Sorry, I think… I think I rushed it a little,” he said and felt her squeeze his palm.

“I don’t know! After all, you’re the one who has years of experience in the dating field.”

“Let’s not define it just yet,” he said looking in her beautiful eyes framed with dark glasses.

“But I’m choosing the movie,” ordered Felicity. 

They then talked about everything and nothing, not even realizing the time kept running. They both had to admit, they felt good in each other company. All problems were fading away; all worries suddenly didn’t matter. In their hearts, they knew that this was a start of something new.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU FOR READING :) I'll try to update in 2 weeks but I can't promise anything :( I'm missfsmoak on tumblr, you can find me there :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone :) I am very sorry this chapter isn't edited and has a lot of mistakes. Finals are very soon and I may not have time to post. That's why I decided not to wait for a corrected version. SORRY! It's totally my bad. I will replace this chapter with the edited one as soon as I can. I hope you'll still enjoy?

It's been a month since Oliver's first date with Felicity. They were talking every day when Felicity was picking Dylan up from school, a few times Felicity let him to drive them when it was rainy or too cold for a nice walk. This day Dylan was one of 4 children at the after school care because most of his collegues were on a trip in Central City. Dylan has been there many times and Felicity was glad he can spend some time with Oliver. She knew that Dylan really liked Oliver and talked to him all the time. Oliver liked Felicity's son too, but wasn't pleased with the things Felicity was telling him about - that Dylan was making her upset by not wanting to talk to her. Oliver knew she is not telling him everything and that probably she leaves the most important things unsaid. Especially when it comes to things that upset her. She never complains, she's never sad and when he can tell she is, she tries her best to hide it. Oliver was getting to know Felicity pretty fast and he knew she would do anything for her son, just like he would do anything for Thea. Later this afternoon Dylan was left in the gym alone with Oliver. Felicity's shift was about to end soon and Oliver decided to use this time to talk to Dylan. He knew he shouldn't interfere and he believed that Felicity - as the strongest person he knows would deal with anything, but it hurt him that Felicity was working her hands off to give him anything he wanted and Dylan was constantly mad at her because his father isn't calling back.

"Can I go get the basket ball?" Asked Dylan who got tired of resting on the bleachers. Being a very active child he couldn't stand sitting for longer than fifteen minutes.

"Sure, we'll practice how to throw" said Oliver and waited for Dylan to choose a ball from a huge box. The boy ran fast to the basket and threw the ball inside.

"Wow, someone's a professional" said Oliver and caught the ball. Dylan smiled proudly and waited for his teacher to throw the ball back to him. "Mother's Day will be soon, what are you getting your mom?" Asked Oliver and hoped that Dylan wouldn't notice the change in his tone.

"I always draw for her and when granny is here we go buy mom some chocolates" said Dylan jumping and throwing the ball again.

"That's nice... Moms deserve the best, you know?"

"Mr. Queen, you talk like my granny. She says that mom deserves the best" the boy smiled.

"Well, your granny is right" admitted Oliver. "You're a big boy, do you care of your mom like you're supposed to?" He knew he was a bit harsh, but hoped Dylan wouldn't notice. Felicity deserved the best, not an always moody child who was kind to anyone but her. Lately Dylan's behavior got even worse. He got a brand new laptop from his father and wanted to play days and nights. Felicity was the one to tell him when to stop and her son was getting mad at her. He took her phone without asking a few times and called Cooper in the middle of the night complaining that mom is taking his present away from him. If that wasn't enough Cooper didn't show up on a meeting with his son and left the child disappointed. Again Felicity had to explain everything, because that jerk wasn't answering her calls.

"Take care of mom? How?" wondered Dylan.

"Like she takes care of you. Make sure she sleeps well, eats a lot of vegetables... and besides that you have to be a gentelman. Open doors for her and carry your own backback" Oliver had this conversation in his head a thousand times, but still it didn't go as he wished.

"Do you do that?" Oliver only sighed in response. He couldn't do that anymore and it hurt him that he never really had. Being 7 he already was spoilt and naughty and from there it only went worse. Sure, they had a lot of money, his mother didn't work too much, never had to struggle to meet ends, but still it wasn't easy to raise two kids and look at their not so smart life choices. Now after he understood his mistakes and thought of every single part of his past he felt guilt that he wasn't able to push away. At first he was doing it only for Felicity, his tiny ray of sunshine, but now he realised that he is doing this also for Dylan. He didn't want this small kid to feel the guilt after he realises that everything his mother does is for him. He kept telling Felicity that she has to slow down, rest a little, everyone had telling her that. And she of course didn't listen. Oliver thought she would listen to Dylan, in fact Dylan was Oliver's only hope to get to Felicity... so there was no choice.

"I did that when I was your age" said Oliver thinking something totally different.

"Then I will do that too!"

'Mission accomplished' thought Oliver.

"Hey boys!" They both turned their heads to the door. Felicity has just entered the gym and now was walking towards them with a smile on her face.

"Hello mom!"

"Hey Felicity" said Oliver smiling. "We're playing basketball, want to join us?"

"Oh no, as long as it's a sport I am not interested" she laughed, but Dylan still gave her the ball.

"Please mom, try throwing a few times and then we'll go."

"And then I'll drive you" promised Oliver standing closer to Felicity, fighting the urge to wrap his arms around her waist - something he liked doing when they were alone.

"Only a few times." Throwing the ball Felicity missed, but then tried again and again until she finally succeeded. Dylan was cheering for her and hugged her tight when she finally didn't miss. "Okay, now we're going home. But it was fun! Next time I pick you up I'll try another sport. And now go get your things." Dylan ran to the dressing room leaving the adults alone. Oliver put his hands on Felicity's shoulders, she sighed and closed hr eyes.

"Tired?" He whispered.

"A little" she admitted. "Today I'm really glad you're driving us home."

"It's not winter anymore, it's not getting dark early anymore and not so many children are staying... Whenever Dylan is the last kid I can drive you" said Oliver. "And um... Is Dylan going to the camp?" He asked cautiously.

"Yes, yes, he is."

"Then I'd better remind you that I was collecting money today."

"What?" She wondered. "I mean it like 'wait, what?' and not like 'what? can you repeat the question' because I have heard you well. You're standing... like totally next to my ear, I mean next to me... Today. I don't have them today, I... I... honestly I thought that's next week, last time I had to check..."

"Hey, it's fine" Oliver quickly interrupted. "That's okay, you can bring them tomorrow. I'll text you in the morning, okay?"

"That would be great..." said Felicity deep in thoughts. If he was collecting money this week and not the next it meant that she miscalculated... Dylan finally showed up dressed in his casual clothes, sweats tangled and pushed into the backpack.

"Ready to go!" He announced and went to open the door for his mom.

The ride home was very nice. Felicity was stressed out, but she couldn't think of anything having her two favourite men joking, laughing and singing some old songs. Oliver and Dylan were getting along really well, but Felicity was afraid that it can change once she tells Dylan the truth. Now he only knew that his mom, Andy's dad and Oliver were good friends. Too soon for Felicity's taste they arrived at the parking lot and Oliver stopped the car.

"Thank you" said Felicity and got out, Dylan and Oliver right after her. The boy said 'goodbye' and ran towards the building carrying not only his backpack, but also Felicity's purse.

"Do you remember about tomorrow?" Asked Oliver suddenly.

"Yup! But please text me as you said, okay?"

"I... I meant the date" claryfied Oliver and Felicity gasped. How was it possible that one week passed that fast?

"Oh, the date! 6:30 at your place, sure I remember" she laughed nervously. Oliver could feel her distress and didn't want to push.

"We can do it any other day..."

"No! I'll be there" promised Felicity and started walking away to Dylan who was waiting near the entrance.

"Right... See you!"

"See you tomorrow" Felicity smiled and looked as he gets into the car. She couldn't wait to meet him again. She was acting like a lovesick teenager, but she couldn't help it. She didn't know that, but he was just as imaptient as she was. She was slowly starting to trust him, each day he proved her that he is worth her trust.

xxx

In the middle of the night Felicity was sitting at the kitchen table cautiously reviewing all of her bills. She was extremly tired after a whole night and day at work, but she was too restless to fall asleep. She was a very organized person, especially when it came to finances. Tomorrow she had to pay the first part of the summer cup price. She was supposed to be able to pay for her son's camp with her extra job, but she miscalculated a few things and some time ago she realised that her hairdresser and a new cardigan she bought for her next date with Oliver were more problematic than she thought. She wanted to look good and got carried away. And now because of her stupidity Dylan wouldn't go on a summer camp... Felicity couldn't let this happen. Not thinking much she reached her phone and dialed her mother. Donna Smoak was the only person who knew about all Felicity's problems. They lived far away from each other, but were really close.

"Sweetheart? What's going on?" Felicity gasped relived when she heard her mom's voice. They haven't talked for weeks because Felicity was busier than usual with her double job and Oliver.

"Hey mom" she said biting her lip in an attempt to stop herself from crying. "Nothing's going on, it's all fine, I'm sorry I'm calling this late."

"It's okay... are you sure you're fine? You haven't called in so long and now do decide to say 'hi' at 2 am?" Wondered Donna.

"I haven't called because I'm busy, I'm sending Dylan to a summer camp and I have to work more to pay for it and..." Felicity interrupted and took a deep breath. She closed her eyes and let the tears fall down her cheeks. She was too tired to take a grip, she didn't care anymore.

"Felicity?"

"Mom... can I borrow some money? It's not much and you know I'll give everything back" sobbed Felicity to her phone.

"Oh sweetheart! How much do you need?" Asked Donna. She wanted to comfort her daughter, ask what's going on, but at first she had to send her the money.

"80" whispered Felicity worried that her sobbs woke Dylan up.

"80!?" Squealed Donna. "80 dollars? Baby girl! You cry like you need 800! Calm down, we'll figure it all out, don't cry!"

"But I wouldn't have to ask you if I wasn't so selfish!"

"I know that independence is your soft spot, but it's okay to ask for help sometimes" said Felicity's mother. "And whatever you think, I know that if there's anything you can't do it's being selfish" she reasoned with her daughter.

"Yeah... this time I was... it's... it's a long stoty. I just wish I could give him everything" sighed Felicity.

"Everything you didn't have" whispered Donna. She was in the same situation as Felicity one day. She knew that feeling, she remembered very well all of the nights she cried not knowing what to do, not knowing how to hide problems from an extraordinary smart little girl.

"Mom, it's not about that" Felicity said quickly. She never wanted to make her mom feel bad, she knew how much it took to stay strong through all the time. She had to smile all the time at work, couldn't cry when Dylan was around and she couldn't be all whiny while talking to Oliver.

"I know that it's difficult. And I can't say that it's going to get better, but you are strong, you can do anything you want. And I believe that one day you will be a head of an IT departament, like you always wanted" said Donna. "And now, tell me about something good. Come on, you haven't called me in so long that something good had to happen" she laughed.

"Yeah... I met a guy" said Felicity wiping the remains of tears from her face. "He's tall and handsome" she added quickly before her mom could ask.

"Are you together together?"

"Only together, but we are getting there" responded Felicity with a smile. "He knows about Dylan."

"Does Dylan like him?"

"Yes, he does, very much so. He doesn't know we're together yet" said Felicity.

"You're still not sure" Donna whispered knowingly.

"I'm not sure if it can work" admitted Felicity.

"Why not?"

"It's a long story... But I really want it to work." Felicity heard a noise in the other room. "Mom, I have to go, Dylan's awake."

"Goodnight sweetheart, kiss him goodnight from me. And don't worry, you'll have your money by noon" said Donna and ended the call. Felicity took a deep breath and waited until her son comes to the kitchen.

"Mom?" Dylan was standing by the door looking at his mother uncertainly. "Did you cry?" Felicity only shook her head.

"You're awake? It's very late, Dylan" she told him, and got up from the stool.

"Who were you talking to?"

"Granny. She told me to kiss you goodnight from her." Felicity wrapped her arms around Dylan and kissed his forehead. Dylan hugged her back and Felicity suddenly felt way calmer.

"Mom, granny should know better than that" he noticed. "You have to sleep at night!" Saying so Dylan started pulling Felicity out of the kitchen. "Come on, I'll sing you our song." Felicity didn't know where this came from, she didn't know about Oliver's talk with Dylan, and she was truly surprised and happy. For once Dylan wasn't acting up and she had to admit that he was getting more polite these days. Felicity lay next to him and let him snuggle into the covers.

Dylan started singing quietly and Felicity closed her eyes.

"One day by the see,

A little fairy saw me,

I told her that I'm looking for...

A small gift for my mom"

Felicity smiled, but before her son started another verse she was peacefully asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading :) See you soon (hopefully)
> 
> You can find me on tumblr (missfsmoak) and you can talk to me about my stories or anything else... :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello :) A short chapter, but I think that at least it's on time this time :) The next chapter will hopefully be posted in 2 weeks :)  
> Thank you for all kudos, bookmarks and comments!!! I love your thoughts, and I try to respond to all of them. I hope you'll enjoy this chapter (edited by tumblr user youfixedmybrokenwings - THANK YOU DARLING!!!)

“Dylan, Dylan honey, have you seen my phone? I swear it was right here…” Felicity was walking around the room looking for her mobile. In their super small apartament it was almost impossible to lose anything and yet she couldn’t find it anywhere. She was trying to get ready for her date with Oliver, she was supposed to leave in an hour and she still didn’t have her hair or makeup done. Suddenly the bathroom door opened loudly and Dylan looked at his mother.

“Don’t shout, I can’t hear dad,” said the kid and shut the door, leaving Felicity shocked in the room. Dylan didn’t have his own phone and Felicity always let him take hers, but never without asking. It was happening more frequently these days though. He took her phone and called Cooper and then he didn’t even want to tell her what they were talking about. Before Felicity could move Dylan ran out from the bathroom and started putting his shoes on, a huge grin on his face.

“Dylan, what are you doing?” she asked, seriously concerned. After a talk with Cooper literally anything could happen.

“Going out with dad, he’s taking me for ice cream,“ said Dylan plainly, not even looking at his mother.

“What? No. We’re going out in an hour…”

“He’ll drive me to aunt Cait after ice cream,” explained the small boy and got up from the ground looking for his jacket. For the first time in her ife Felicity was grateful he didn’t put it away. Now she still had some time to talk to him and stop him from leaving. She was getting more and more frustrated, no matter what she did Dylan always found a way to upset her by telling her things dad’s better at.

“No! You didn’t even ask what I think about it, you can’t go! You took my phone without permission and…” started Felicity, keeping her voice down, but Dylan interrupted.

“I don’t have to tell you, you have to let me go!” he argued.

“What? Who told you that?” asked Felicity, already knowing the answer.

“Dad.”

“Of course… Dylan, no matter what he says, you have to tell me everything.” She walked up to him and put her hands on his shoulders and tried to look into his eyes, but he adverted his head from her. “I love you, and that’s the reason I have to know everything. I have to know where you are, you live with me and you can’t just go out, you’re not an adult yet. I always let you meet dad when you ask me or he asks me… I even ask him myself, you know that!”

“No! You always tell me I can’t go!”

“Not true, that’s not true honey,“ said Felicity, trying to calm down. She knew shouting at Dylan would only make things worse, but she was scared that one day he would leave and just never come back. It was Cooper who was cancelling the meetings almost all the time. The meetings he actually had with him were not longer than an hour - Cooper had it all planned to keep it that way. “I only tell you that dad can’t pick you up. And you should know that I’m very sorry for that.” And she really was. Hating Cooper was one thing, but wanting him to be a good, responsible father for her son’s sake was the other.

“No, I can’t tell you, you won’t let me go!” he yelled, trying to escape. Finally he pulled out from his mother’s grip and ran across the room. “I don’t want to live with you anymore! You will never let me meet dad!” Hearing what he said, Felicity almost fell to the ground. She gasped in shock and horror and tried her best to calm down. She took a deep breath and started talking trying to ignore tears in her eyes and squeezed throat. Even if the thought of living with Cooper crossed Dylan’s mind, the boy’s father would never agreed to it, or at least Felicity hoped so.

“I will. I am, you can go with dad today, okay?” She blinked a few times and took a few steps towards her son. Sure, they argued over Cooper before, but never like that. Was she a bad mother? She was working a lot and she wasn’t spending a lot of time with her son… “Now… give me my phone back and I’ll go get your bag…” she pleaded.

“No! You’ll call him and say I can’t go!” cried Dylan. Felicity had just noticed his wet eyes and cheeks. She just shook her head.

“I promise I won’t. Give it back and I promise I won’t call dad. And I promise you can go out with him today, he just has to drop you to aunt Cait, okay?” Dylan nodded, unsure, and slowly walked towards his mom. He gave her the phone and went after her to the bathroom where he left his bag with clothes for a sleepover.

“Dad will send a text when he’s in the parking lot.”

“Great! I’ll walk you there, okay? Carry your bag for you?” offered Felicity, not wanting him to go out alone.

“Yeah, you can walk me… but you can’t carry the bag,” reasoned her son. He remembered well what Oliver told him about carrying his own things. He was afraid Felicity will call off the meeting, but couldn’t fail Oliver by telling him that he let his mom carry a bag for him.

“What? Why not? Dylan baby, what has gotten into you?” wondered Felicity, was her son afraid she’d run away with it? Dylan didn’t have a chance to respond before the phone buzzed. “It’s dad.“

“Is he there already?” asked Dylan opening the door in hurry, not waiting for an answer.

“Yes, he’s waiting,” sighed Felicity and followed her son out of the apartament. Cooper was waiting outside of the car and Dylan ran to him as soon as he saw him. She walked faster telling herself that she can face that jerk. She saw Dylan hugging his father, then Cooper opened the car’s door and Dylan hopped in.

“What are you doing here?” asked Cooper, clearly surprised when Felicity walked up to him.

“Good evening to you too,” she muttered. “Have fun tonight,” she said to her son and knocked on the window gently. To her surprise Dylan smiled at her.

“Thanks mom,“ was his response and Felicity shut the door turning to Cooper again.

“What, did you think I’d let him out alone? I am his mother, I have to know about everything you plan on doing with him, I have to know when!” she whispered loudly, not wanting Dylan to hear this conversation. “And you tell him he doesn’t have to tell me?”

“I’m his father, and he’s not 5!”

“Right, he’s 7. You weren’t here when he was 5, if you need a reminder you weren’t here at all,” she said firmly. “And you don’t even look sorry!”

“Well, you don’t look good…” Perfect. That was something a girl wants to hear before a date. “Go take a nap or something.” Felicity’s mouth fell open. “I’ll drop him to this Cait girl in an hour,” he added and sat in the car leaving Felicity upset on the parking lot. She took a few breaths, the cool evening air quickly making her shake. She stood still for a while, eyes closed, the hot tears falling down her cheeks. She tried to be strong, but she wasn’t sure she could still do this. Dylan had given her all the strength she ever needed and now her only ray of sunshine punched her in the face. Not literally, but it probably hurt even more. She wasn’t sure if he meant it, he seemed to be conflicted, Cooper was messing with his head. Finally she sighed and started walking back to her apartment. There she sat on the couch and squeezed her phone. She quickly dialled Caitlyn and prayed for her to pick up.

“Hello?” Felicity heard the familiar voice, that didn’t belong to Caitlyn, but her fiancé - Ronnie.

“Hey, is Caitlyn there somewhere?” she asked, hoping Ronnie won’t hear anything unusual in her voice.

“She’s in the bathroom right now, are you okay? You sound weird.” A girl can hope…

“Yeah, I’m fine, I just…” she took a deep breath. “Cooper will drive Dylan tonight, can you please call me or just text when he’s there?”

“Sure, of course I can… Are you sure you’re fine?” he asked, concern in his voice.

“Yes. I gotta go, bye.”

“Bye…”

“And thank you for taking care of Dylan!” Felicity shouted quickly.

“No problem, you know we’ll take care of him anytime. Cait keeps talking about your hot date, you better have lots to say tomorrow,” laughed Ronnie and Felicity hung up because she couldn’t take it anymore. No hot date for her tonight. She wasn’t in the mood for any of this, besides she looked like a nightmare. She curled up on the couch and dialled Oliver. She wanted to send a text, but she thought it would be even more rude.

“Hey, what’s up?” asked Oliver cheerfully, not suspecting anything yet.

“Hi, I’m sorry, I can’t come tonight. So I just call to tell you that and that I’m very sorry… and that if you still want to we can do this any other day?” she said quietly, unsure of her voice.

“Oh, that’s a shame, but no problem!” he sounded very disappointed and it broke Felicity’s heart even more. “Did something happen?”

“No, no, it’s all fine… but I’m really not feeling so good and I think I just have to rest a bit.”

“Okay, call me if you need anything, okay?” asked Oliver, but Felicity knew she would never do that. She could deal with her problems on her own and didn’t want any help. She’d been doing great for 7 years and he knew she could take care of everything. All he wanted to do was help her somehow, to make her life easier.

“Thanks and sorry again, bye,” said Felicity, pulled her knees under her chin and started crying quietly. She must have dozed off because a knocking on her door made her jump off the couch. She sighed and walked up to the door because the knocking was making her head pound. It was probably that teenage girl - a cat owner who kept losing her curious cat in random people’s homes. Fluffy was a young kitten who loved sneaking in people’s apartments leaving his poor owner concerned and annoyed. Without thinking Felicity opened the door and stood startled, because instead of looking at the girl’s face she was looking at a man’s chest. A very familiar chest…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU FOR READING :) Pretty please leave a comment maybe? :) They make my day! I hope you will enjoy the story as it goes... I really, really hope so. You can follow me on tumblr under the same username as here ~missfsmoak :) 
> 
> SOON I WILL POST A ONE SHOT, OLICITY - FLOWER SHOP AU :) I hope you'll like it too, let me know if you want to be tagged on tumblr :) See you soon!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continuation of chapter 6 :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! A/N (must read)
> 
> I am very sorry for the delay. I was extremly busy and now I’m posting this chapter on 3 different accounts and I have only about 10 minutes to do it so I’m sorry if I missed anything. I haven’t written chapter 8 yet so... you know, another delay :( THANK YOU for reading this fanfic, for commenting, liking, and messaging me, feel free to do it all the time!!! :) I may not be able to respond right away but I will!!! :) 
> 
> Okay so now to the chapter. It was edited by my lovely tumblr friend @youfixedmybrokenwings :) Thank you!
> 
> SWEARING/SEX MENTIONED WARNING!
> 
> I hope you’ll like it :)

SWEARING/SEX MENTIONED WARNING!

“Oliver?” she asked, shocked, blinking a few times.

“Good evening… I wanted to check up on you, I was worried,” he said, looking at her with a small smile. “I can go back home if you don’t want me here,” he said, unsure what to do because Felicity was just standing behind the door not saying a word. One look at her face made him even more worried. “Are you crying?” She was startled and embarrassed he was looking at her in sweat pants and her face still wet with tears.

“Come in, I just wasn’t expecting you here, that’s all,” she said. She felt bad for cancelling their date and now when Oliver was standing by her door she had no choice but to let him in. A part of her wanted him to leave her alone to cry all night, but the other part wanted him to hug her and never let go. And also cry.

“I texted you a few times, but you didn’t respond so…”

“Oh no, I probably left my phone muted,“ whispered Felicity and quickly went to the couch to grab her phone. She saw almost ten missed calls from Caitlyn and Oliver and a few messages and sighed. “Sorry, I have to respond to that,” she said and Oliver only nodded. Luckily the messages said Dylan is safe and sound at Caitlyn and Ronnie’s place and that he’s in good mood and very polite. She texted a quick ‘sorry, I fell asleep, thank you!’ and looked back at Oliver who was standing in the middle of the room.

“Is everything okay, Felicity?” asked Oliver, hesitantly noticing her distress. On the chair he saw skinny jeans, a button up and a nice cardigan, her only high heels under the table. Clearly she was trying to get ready on their date.

“Yes, I’m just having a bad day…” she looked at him and smiled kindly. “Thank you for coming and look, I’m so sorry about today…” she started.

“That’s fine, we can do it some other day if you want to,” assured Oliver and Felicity sighed in relief. “You said you’re not feeling well and I just wanted to check on you. And I brought some food for you and Dylan because… well, someone has to eat it.” Oliver smiled and put a bag, that Felicity hadn’t noticed before, on an empty chair. Felicity’s eyes landed on her specially prepared outfit.

“Yeah, I really wanted to come, but something has happened and…” She smiled sadly and looked away.

“No problem, really. And if you want to talk, I’m here. Literally… here. If you want to talk to someone… to me. And I’ll stay if you let me,” babbled Oliver. Felicity was facing him, both clearly didn’t know what to do. Oliver, who came uninvited, knew he should leave, but something in Felicity’s eyes made him want to stay. She wasn’t sure what to say, he knew it. She wanted to deal with her problems on her own, but on the other hand she felt safe with Oliver. He made all of her doubts go, and she could imagine that crying in his arms would be much more pleasurable than crying on the uncomfortable couch alone. She wasn’t sure what to call their relationship, but it was clear to both of them that they were more than just friends.

“And if I told you that I want to talk about some kind of family drama and that I’m probably going to cry my eyes out would you stay?” she asked, already feeling the hot tears in her eyes. She was sure he would run away, but she couldn’t even blink and she felt two strong arms wrapped around her. Oliver pulled her into a tight hug. It took her a while to wrap her arms around him too. Felicity gently rested her head against his chest and closed her eyes letting the tears fall.

“It’s okay, I’m not going anywhere” he whispered and kissed the top of her head.

“I’ll wet your shirt,” sobbed Felicity, giving him the last way out.

“I’m willing to sacrifice my Prada shirt in order to make you feel better,” he said and kissed her head again. Felicity smiled through her tears and let herself relax against him. She cried for a long time. Neither Oliver nor Felicity knew how long that was, but finally they ended up on the couch because their legs started to hurt. That’s when Felicity went wild. She started crying louder and kicking the couch in anger and Oliver knew she was trying not to scream. This tiny blonde deserved so much more from life. She was always kind and cheerful despite being tired and it hurt Oliver to see her like this.

“Cry Felicity, cry” he whispered, stroking her hair. “You’ll feel better. I’m here, it’s okay to cry.” Hearing him Felicity sobbed even harder. She felt the tension and anger slowly leaving her body.

“He hates me,” she cried.

“Who?”

“Dylan! My own son hates me! He wants a father and I fucked up! So bad…” Felicity fisted Oliver’s shirt and hid her face in it. “I should have never told him! I am so stupid!” Oliver wanted to protest, but decided to let her vent. “I hate this idiot! He’s an asshole, I hate him! And Dylan loves him so much… Why? They barely spend time together! And no, it’s not   
me who’s cancelling the meetings! I am too tired, I can’t do this anymore!”

“You can.” Oliver hugged her closer. “You are the strongest person I know, you of all people can handle this,“ he said.

“Stay with me?” Felicity managed to ask.

“Always,” whispered Oliver into her ear meaning it. He didn’t want to leave her side today or tomorrow or maybe ever.

His shirt was seriously wet and Felicity was still sobbing against it, her cries weaker because of exhaustion. After she stopped crying she continued to lay on top of Oliver’s chest for a while. She explained him what happened today and she said exactly what Dylan and Cooper said to upset her. Oliver was stroking her back and whispering reassuring words into her ear and she never wanted it to end. Finally she pulled herself up and wiped the remains of tears from her cheeks.

“Thank you,” she whispered, unsure of her voice, and smiled. She felt lighter, not only because she let her sorrow go, but also because Oliver stayed by her side through hard times and every day she feared he wouldn’t. “Thank you for being here for me.”

“Anytime,” smiled Oliver and pulled her into a hug. She was still shaking, but at least the tears weren’t falling anymore. He hated seeing Felicity like this, but he was glad to be there for her. She wrapped her arms around his waist and he rested his chin on her head. He was holding her tight and for the first time she realised that their relationship could work. She let him in, she opened up to him because she wanted to. And he didn’t run away…

“I bought wine for our dinner tonight, we could drink it now if you want to” she offered after a few minutes, breaking the comfortable silence. Oliver smiled and nodded his head as Felicity stood up. She felt like she could drain the whole bottle right now. Oliver was dressed in an elegant suit and she was standing in front of him in her pink sweats, without any makeup and with a messy bun on her head. Oliver was her prince charming and she hadn’t even put her best clothes on.

“We could also eat that dinner, I only have to reheat it,” said Oliver and also stood. “If you’re hungry that is.”

“Not really, but I need the wine” she sighed. “Oops…”

“What’s up?” Asked Oliver adverting his head to Felicity who was standing with an opened bottle of wine in her hands.

“Besides the fact that you’ve probably never drunk cheap wine, I don’t have any glasses,” she sighed. “I just never needed them,” she explained, looking at her feet and realising how absurd this situation was. Now, out of nowhere came the giggle that Felicity couldn’t control. Oliver reassured her, she was calm now and adrenaline wore off.

“Hmm… I’ve never drunk cheap wine from a mug. But I think that I’d like to try,” laughed Oliver and Felicity couldn’t help but to giggle again. He was clearly amused by the abrupt change of mood, but he knew Felicity well enough to know she couldn’t whine any longer.

xxx

After a short while Oliver sat beside Felicity on the couch. He only took a salad out of the bag in hope Felicity would eat something. He had never been in her apartment before and he couldn’t help but notice how small it was. It was also prettily decorated and cozy, but he couldn’t imagine that two people could actually live in it. He knew his standards were not exactly normal, it was the first time in his life he’d seen a one room apartment, but he lived with Thea in a five room one and it was just enough.

“I suck at dating,” whispered Felicity, sipping her wine.

“I’ve had worse,” responded Oliver and looked her in the eyes. “And you know what? Practice makes perfect. A few more times and you’ll be a professional,” he joked and Felicity sighed.

“Do you want to say something sad?”

“What?”

“You know… Just whine or complain. Or cry? I wouldn’t be so embarassed if you’d do that,” she explained. “And besided that, I want you to know that I’m here for you too,” added Felicity. “I’m a good listener.”

“Thank you. I don’t cry a lot. I didn’t cry when my parents died, not for many years anyways. I told myself I had to be strong for Thea so I didn’t show her… or anyone else at that matter, how much it hurt,“ Now Oliver was opening up to her. She never thought it would ever happen because after the past weeks he knew more of her than she of him. Thinking of it Felicity wasn’t sure if she told him that much or someone else did. “I became so cold. I wasn’t happy anymore, I couldn’t sleep at night, I couldn’t calm down. There was something stuck inside of me that I was afraid to let go. But from experience I can tell you that it’s good to cry sometimes.” Oliver took Felicity’s free hand in his. Her fingers were cold against his and he felt her tremble beside him. He noticed a folded blanket next to him under the cushions and covered Felicity with it.

“Thanks,” she smiled. “Did the cry made you feel better?”

“Yeah… did it made you feel better?” asked Oliver, squeezing her hand.

“I don’t know. I’m feeling a lot better now, but I don’t know if it’s because I cried for two hours or because…” she took a deep breath, “or because you proved that not all men are jerks,” smiled Felicity.

“Wow…” he whispered. “I’m honoured. But please don’t tell me you were afraid I would leave?”

“Uh, I kind of was,” admitted Felicity, now ashamed of her previous thoughts. Oliver looked disappointed and thought he probably should have showed her better that he cared too much to leave.

“What do I do with you, huh? We’re a team now. I won’t leave you. Or Dylan if he needs me. And you know what? You convinced me that not all women are evil,” he admitted.

“Well if we have a confession night then what exactly happened that made you hate women?” asked Felicity, hoping she didn’t step too far.

“I’m rich,” he said simply. “That happened. After my parents died, after I had to take care of Thea I changed. I became a different man, I was honest and kind and… naive. Because I was thinking that everyone is like that. Turned out I was wrong. And it wasn’t even one girl! Helena was first. I noticed a few thousand dollars missing on one of my accounts, by accident really. I wouldn’t notice the difference, I hardly ever look at the bills. And I realised one of my credit cards was missing. She was stealing from me and I would have given her anything! Even that stupid lingerie and a bag she spent 6 thousand dollars on…”

“Whoa! That’s crazy! What was it made of? Gold?”

“Mhm, that was my reaction too. No idea, but that purse was ugly as shit! And then there was Isabel who stole way more. I thought Helena was just one case and I didn’t pay attention. My lovely Isabel was committing some frauds, signing papers for me, I didn’t even know anyone was capable of that. And then there was Samantha. She tricked me into being her child’s father and blackmailed me to pay her a huge amount of money, but then it turned out that kid was not my son and she knew it… And the baby father knew that too.” Oliver took a deep breath. It surprised him that he wasn’t upset about it anymore. It seemed like he’d left it in the past and moved on.

“Wow… And I am whining because of Cooper. Don’t get me wrong, but… Shouldn’t you have a rich girlfriend then?” Felicity thought that he might have trust issues, and she was poor after all and needed money. Was he really that naive that it didn’t cross his mind?

“They were rich! They just wanted more. I should have a girl who isn’t a gold digger,” explained Oliver, looking at Felicity with a smile.

“What makes you think I’m not one?” Felicity confronted him. Sure she wasn’t one, but if he trusted everyone that easily she couldn’t let it go.

“Seriously? You? Digg is too good at reading people. He wouldn’t let you near his family like he never let Helena or Isabel. I just never listened,” explained Oliver. “And I paid for it.”

“Literally…”

“No, I got everything back. I had a good lawyer ” said Oliver and hesitated. “Speaking of lawyers my friend is the best in the state and if you need help with Cooper I could give you her number.”

“What?” wondered Felicity. You mean like… at court? With Cooper?“

“That’s what you’re worried about, right? The sharing custody thing?” Oliver looked at her, confused.

“No, not at all. Cooper made it clear he doesn’t want Dylan. He’s not even in his papers. Which puts me in a great light… I ordered to put ‘father unknown’ on my child’s birth certificate. Like I’ve slept with a dozen men… No, I haven’t said that! Or done that! 3, 2, 1… What I’m worried about is that he doesn’t want to tell Dylan. And I’m the bad one because I said he has to tell him it’s over or get a grip and be his dad for real,” Felicity looked at Oliver and smiled. “Thank you though.”

“I have to say I’m relieved.”

“Why’s that?”

“I’m not sure… I’m glad you’re not having any problems with that. Maybe we could take Dylan on our next date? To the zoo for example?” offered Oliver. Seeing Felicity’s wince he quickly added. “Hey, we’re friends. He knows that. We can take Andy and Sara with us, Dylan wouldn’t know we’re dating.”

“I want to tell him. And I will, but firstly I have to deal with Cooper,” promised Felicity. “And I think that date idea is pretty cool. But it won’t really be a date, right?”

“It’ll be whatever you want it to be.”

“Okay” she said leaning her head on Oliver’s chest. “Do you want more wine?”

“Yes, actually your cheap wine is really good. I should buy it sometime,” said Oliver, reaching for the bottle. “So are we doing a confession night for real?”

“Huh… yeah, we could. Is there anything else you want to know about me?”

“How old are you exactly? 25? I calculated this much but wanted to make sure,” said Oliver hugging her closer to him.

“Yeah, you? 30?” Oliver nodded his head. “There’s no fun in doing a confession night if we ask about things like that!” she pouted.

“Are you drunk already?”

“Nope. But gettin’ there,” laughed Felicity and her lips accidently brushed Oliver’s neck. “Ohh let’s play truth or dare!”

“And you got there,” he laughed trying not to think of Felicity’s lips against his bare skin.

“I should have eaten something,” she said and touched Oliver’s neck with her lips again. This time Oliver couldn’t tell if it was an accident. His hand involuntarily moved along Felicity’s body to rest on her hip and when he lowered his gaze he stared straight into Felicity’s eyes. She pulled his shirt a little bit and he leaned down to her. Their lips were almost touching, but Felicity was afraid to make the first move. What if he thought she was drunk? She wasn’t exactly sober, but she was still aware of every thought and move. Oliver was looking into her eyes and she was looking back with wide eyes. “Do you… do you want to do something?” she asked quietly and lowered her gaze just a little bit so she was looking at his lips. Oliver gasped and put his both palms on her cheeks and kissed her. He had kissed her before, of course. On the cheek, top of her head, even lips, but this was very different. He kissed her like he’s always wanted to kiss her, finally he could hold her to him and make her gasp for air. Felicity couldn’t help but let out a moan that made Oliver crazy. He knew this won’t go any further tonight, but he decided to enjoy the moment as long as he could. Then, he felt Felicity’s hands on his back pulling him towards her and he realised that he was lying on top of her, still kissing her soft, warm lips. Felicity was tracing patterns on his back, he could feel her fingers through the shirt. They were kissing and kissing, desire wavering in them, hot, burning even. After a while their moves were becoming slower, breaths deeper. Finally Felicity kissed Oliver gently and smiled at him. He smiled back, pulling away and laid beside her on his side, his arm around her waist, face buried in the crook of her neck.

“The circumstances were a lot less romantic than I’ve imagined,” muttered Felicity, blushing furiously.

“What? We were drinking wine on a couch alone, you seduced me, what’s not romantic about it?” asked Oliver furrowing his brows.

“My sweat pants… What? I seduced you?” laughed Felicity. “ Well… there’s just something about you.”

“Mmm… Or maybe there’s something about you? A second nature? You’re a shy pretty girl who can seduce a man in cold blood,“ Oliver was kissing her neck, breathing out the words.

“Is it a crime Mr. Queen?”

“Do you mean kissing or talking dirty?” asked Oliver and Felicity jumped. She shifted on her side looking at Oliver slightly… frightened?

“Am I talking dirty?” Felicity bit her lip and furrowed her brows. “I didn’t want to. I mean maybe a part of me wanted to, but I am so sorry if I gave you the wrong impression. Because well… I don’t think it is a good idea. Or maybe it is but not today. Night. Tonight, not tonight as it’s dark already, it’s a night no doubt!” Oliver was looking at Felicity with a smile on his lips.

“It’s okay. I didn’t think of anything,” he said quietly and hugged her tighter.

“Thank you,” she wispered closing her eyes in relief. The last thing she needed was to show him her 'super sexy' underwear... 

“Don’t. We’re a team now, remember?”

“Yeah…”

“And you can be the captain, I don’t mind,” said Oliver kissing her cheek.

“No, I’m not a team player, I have to learn first.”

“And there it is, my shy girl came back,” noticed Oliver.

“I wasn’t always like that,” whispered Felicity, Oliver could barely hear her.

“Like what?” he wondered.

“Like I am now. Shy, lost, quiet… My mom keeps reminding me of that. She says she loves me no matter what, but she misses the old me. Confident, ambitious, outgoing. Sometimes I miss the old me too. But then Dylan hugs me or sings me a lullaby for a goodnight and I don’t care about anything else anymore.” Oliver could see a tear that fell on Felicity’s cheek, but she looked calm, her sleepy eyes closed, breath even. At first she thought Cooper destroyed her. He and their 'friends’ from college, her neighbours in Vegas, she thought there was nothing left for her in life. When she saw Dylan, heard his cry, taught him his first steps, first words she knew she could do this no matter what. She lost her confidence, self-esteem, but she never lost her internal flame that made her a strong woman.

“I like you just the way you are,” said Oliver. He really wanted her to believe in herself again, but he knew telling her to be confident would have the opposite effect. He had to let her know that she is strong, beautiful and smart and then she would simply realise that herself. “My shy, pretty, smart girl.”

“And I like you the way you are,” she murmurred and snuggled against him. “But was it pretty smart or pretty, smart?”

“Pretty and smart, better?” smiled Oliver and Felicity nodded sleepily.

“Much better… Can you stay with me?”

“Yeah, am I a good pillow?”

“Pretty good… pillow,” she yawned. “Warm pillow. Very nice.” Oliver didn’t say a word, letting Felicity fell asleep soundly. He watched her for a while, made sure she was sleeping,   
then kissed her cheek and whispered:

“I love you the way you are.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yayyy!!! :) So... what do you think? :) And thank you again for previous comments and kudos/bookmarks :) ~missfsmoak (also on tumblr)


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello :) Late update, but it’s not going to get better anytime soon :( Thank you for nice comments, kudos, bookmarks and messages! I hope you will like this chapter. So... That’s it, I won’t be talking much longer :)   
> Edited by youfixedmybrokenwings :) thank you!

Oliver was standing by the gym’s door, watching his students. They were very calm today, no one was shouting or jumping around, most of the children were sitting on the floor or on benches drawing for their moms. Mother’s Days are these special days when every child decides to be polite and helpful… until the sun comes down and mothers tell them to go to bed.

“Mr. Queen?” Oliver looked down to see a small girl with a bag full of paper flowers in her hands.

“What do you need, Kelly?”

“I’ve made paper flowers for my mommy, can you put them somewhere safe?” she asked, giving him the bag. “I’m going to play with Agatha and Marie-Jean and I don’t want to destroy them.”

“Of course! How about the closet in the storage?” The girl nodded and Oliver carefully took the bag from her. “Don’t forget them when you leave.”

“I won’t forget, Mr. Queen, it’s only for twenty minutes, mommy promised to pick me up at 4 today, she’s never late.” Hearing this Oliver looked at his watch. Time had gone so fast he had no idea it was almost 4. That was when Felicity would pick up Dylan today. Well…more or less. She took a few hours off to spend some time with him, being at home at 8 wouldn’t leave her much time to do anything. Oliver spotted Dylan in the crowd on the floor surrounded by papers and crayons. Oliver had a plan. He had a perfect plan he’d made up in his head a few days ago. Knowing Felicity she’d take Dylan somewhere to make him happy – to the cafe, Big Belly or to the cinema knowing he’d probably say he has much more fun with Cooper. Oliver knew Felicity tried hard, too hard according to him and he wanted to do everything to make things easier for her. He had to talk to Dylan because the boy seemed to be unpredictable and one minute he could be hugging his mother with a smile, the next he’d snap at her and not talk to her for hours. After a few days ago, when he’d witnessed Felicity’s breakdown and held her all night while she was crying, Oliver knew he had to interfere, at least a little bit.

“Dylan, could you help me with something?” asked Oliver and Dylan looked up at him and nodded. “Yesterday someone left an umbrella here.”

“I didn’t have an umbrella with me yesterday. Or any other day,” he responded. “My mom has one, but I don’t. I used to, I had a green one, but it broke so mom had to throw it out. Then my granny bought me one, but Dino ate it last week… He didn’t really eat it, just chewed on it so mom had to throw it out too.” Oliver smiled hearing Dylan’s word vomit, it reminded him of Felicity so much. “Aunt Lyla said she’ll buy me one, but I don’t know if she has bought it already…”

“Well maybe you could come with me and take a look? Maybe you know someone it belongs to?”

“Sure!” said Dylan. He got up and followed Oliver to the other end of the gym where a blue umbrella was hanging on a bench.

“I have no idea, never saw anyone with it yesterday,” announced Dylan. “I can ask Jason though, he was here all day,” said Felicity’s son and went to walk away.

“Wait…” Oliver hoped his carefully thought-out plan wouldn’t play out weird. “It’s Mother’s Day today,” he said.

“Yes, I know, I drew my mom a picture,” responded Dylan with a smile. “Kelly tried to teach me how to make paper flowers, but I guess I’m not good at it.”

“That’s why I thought you could buy your mom real flowers? I have a plan, but you have to listen carefully,” warned him Oliver. Dylan’s eyes lit up and he nodded quickly. “You know I’m your mom’s friend, right?”

“Right.” Dylan watched Oliver taking a small card from his pocket.  
“I think Felicity, your mom would be happy if you bought her something nice. On your way home you’ll ask her to go to the Rainbow Market to buy… I don’t know, something sweet, chocolate, okay? It has to be that shop. Rainbow Market. On your way out you’ll see a flower shop and you’ll go with your mom there. You’ll hand the lady behind the counter this card you have, and say that your name is Dylan. She has a bouquet and a small package prepared for you,” explained Oliver. Dylan stood there looking at the small, green paper card in his teacher’s hand, blinking furiously.

“Okay,” he said finally and Oliver let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“Remember what you have to do?”

“Convince mommy to go to Rainbow Market and go to the flower shop, give the lady this card and tell her I’m Dylan,” the little boy answered quickly. Oliver could see he was excited and felt the importance of a given task.

“Very well,” smiled Oliver. “Hey, Marie-Jean! Stop running, you’ll fall over!”

“Sorry!” squealed the girl and Oliver’s attention went back to Dylan.

“There’s one more thing, Dylan,” said Oliver slowly, looking around at the three girls that were trying not to run among the papers lying all over the gym floor.

“What’s that, Mr. Queen?”

“I’m not friends with other moms so I wouldn’t want any other child to know about our plan…okay?”

“So it’s our secret?” asked Dylan smiling. “I’m good at keeping secrets,” he added and Oliver frowned.

“That’s our secret. So there are only 2 people who can know about…”

“Can we call it a Flower Mission?” asked Dylan with excitement. He jumped in place carefully placing the card in his pocket.

“Yeah, there are only 2 people who can know about the flower mission,” Oliver knew Shitty Cooper was making Dylan lie to his mother or convince him not to tell her certain things. It was what made Felicity cry every night.

“Yes, only me and you Mr. Queen.”

“No, besides us. Your mom and…” Oliver involuntary let out a breath, “dad. You can’t hide anything from them, but you know that, right?” Cooper was a jerk, but Oliver didn’t want to mess with Dylan’s head more. Mom is as important as dad.

“Uh…yeah, I knew that,” whispered Dylan, looking at his feet. Oliver knew that right now Dylan knew hiding anything from Felicity was bad, but he also knew that the boy would do it again if Cooper asked him to. Shitty Cooper, as Oliver liked calling him in his head, was doing everything to confuse his son. Why? Oliver had no idea. But he knew that he was some kind of a role model to his girlfriend’s son so he tried to use that to help Felicity, but also to help Dylan.

“Your mom would no doubt have suspicions so if she asks… you tell her the truth. Send me a text how the mission went okay?” smiled Oliver and Dylan smiled back to him, nodding his head.

“I will!”

“Mommy deserves the best,” said Oliver, remembering that that was what Dylan’s grandmother always said.

“Mommy deserves the best! Mr. Queen? Thank you,” said Dylan and slowly started walking to his place holding his palm against the card in his pocket. Oliver closed his eyes for a second, relieved. Seeing the smile on Dylan’s face warmed up his heart. Oliver only hoped that Felicity would smile so beautifully too. He knew he would do anything for that girl. Not out of pity. In the beginning he thought he pitied her seeing her with such heavy baggage, but then he realised that it was her honest smile that was pulling him towards her. Her always bright but tired eyes, sweet laugh, the babbling that made her cheeks rosy… He loved Felicity and he hoped she’d give him a chance. After those two awful dates she still wanted to meet him, it couldn’t be a bad sign. Oliver stood in place for a little while watching his students and thinking of Felicity and Dylan when he saw his lovely blonde standing by the entrance to the gym. He glanced at his watch and furrowed his brows in confusion when he saw how early it was. Oliver started walking towards her and smiled seeing that Dylan was hugging her already, giving her a heart-shaped painting he drew for her.

“Good afternoon, Felicity,” said Oliver and Felicity looked up at him with a bright smile. When their eyes met Oliver noticed something behind that smile though. He wanted to ask what was wrong, but Felicity quickly started talking.

“Good afternoon, busy day isn’t it? I mean of course it is, look how many children are here!” She blushed quickly looking away. “Don’t look, you are looking at them all the time, I mean… you know what I meant, right?” she asked biting her lip and looked at him again.

“Yes, I know,” smiled Oliver. “Are you okay?” he asked hesitantly, seeing her distress.

“Yeah, sure, I’m fine, it’s really fine!” she said quickly and put her hand on Dylan’s back. “I’m sorry, we’d better go, okay? I will call you later…”

“Felicity, don’t worry! It’s all good,” assured her Oliver and smiled kindly. Felicity smiled back and it warmed Oliver’s heart. “Have fun you two.”

“Thank you, sure we will!” laughed Felicity, looking at Dylan who was hugging her and already offering to carry her purse home. “Goodbye, I’ll call you this evening Oliver!”

“Bye!” Oliver waved clumsily and watched as they were walking through the door. Felicity had lots of worries and Oliver knew when she was stressed out of her mind. Today was one of those days, but he knew he couldn’t change anything. If she wanted to talk he’d be there for her, but as for now it was better to let her go so for the rest of the day she could pretend that nothing bad had happened.

xxx

“Why do you have to call Mr. Queen tonight?” asked Dylan curiously, looking at his mother.

“Well, it is a surprise for Andy, you know? He has a birthday soon and his parents have to go to another city. Mr. Queen will be taking care of Andy and Sara and he thought it would be nice to go somewhere with them and with you and me,” explained Felicity. “What do you think about it?” Dylan’s eyes lit up.

“Go where?”

“Hey, can’t it be a surprise for you too?” asked Felicity with a soft smile.

“Okay… It can be,” he said. “So we go with them?” Dylan wanted to make sure.

“Yes, I just have to call Oliver… Mr. Queen to set everything up.”

“It’s fine mom, I know you are friends with Mr. Queen, you can call him Oliver, he won’t mind for sure,” said Dylan and Felicity chuckled.

“You don’t mind me being friends with him, do you?” she asked cautiously.

“What? Mom, he’s the bestest teacher ever! He’s almost like my uncle! It’s actually pretty awesome you’re friends with him,” assured Dylan and suddenly started jumping around Felicity. The Rainbow Market was already to be seen ahead of them. “Look mommy, can we go there?” Dylan pointed at the shop on the other side of the street. “Please…”

“What for? I’ve bought everything! We have ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate chip, everything…”

“But I want… um… do we have jelly beans at home?”

“Yes, I think we have,” responded Felicity.

“And do we have donuts?” asked the boy.

“No,” laughed Felicity. “No, we don’t.”

“Then let’s go get them!” said Dylan and started walking towards the market. Felicity sighed and followed him. It was a bad day for her at work, the worst since the last few years, but she had a son to come home to, and today, on Mother’s Day she was going to be the best mom in the whole world. She will buy her dearest boy donuts, as many as he wants! She would cry later, after he’d fallen asleep. And then she will start looking for another job…

“So, Dylan…” she started, wanting to ask what’s going on with him today that he hadn’t stopped jumping around for one minute.

“Mom, not now, we’re going to the Rainbow Market!” said Dylan and took his mother’s hand.

“Yes, kid, we’re going there, easy, easy…” They entered the market and Felicity started walking towards the grocery section. Dylan let go of her hand walking away, but it didn’t bother Felicity - he always stayed in eyesight and she knew he wouldn’t get lost. The furthest he could go was to the pet’s shop to look at fish, turtles, colourful parrots and cute rabbits. She quickly bought the sweets, looking at her son, who this time was looking through the window of a flower shop. When she started slowly walking up to him waving the pack of sweet donuts he disappeared inside the flower shop. The queue was unbelievable. On a Mother’s Day everyone wanted to have a flower for their mom. Felicity had no idea why Dylan went into that shop. He didn’t have any money, not that she had a lot… But Dylan wasn’t standing in the line. He walked up to the counter before Felicity could say his name. She ran to him and wanted to apologise for his behaviour. The strangest thing happened though: the florist smiled at him and gave him the biggest bouquet Felicity had ever seen! Pink lilies, white tulips, roses and some other beautiful flowers that Felicity couldn’t name were decorated with beautiful ribbons. To the bouquet was attached a tiny box.

“Thank you!”

“Have a good day, Mr. Dylan,” smiled the florist and Dylan turned to Felicity.

“Happy Mother’s Day, mommy!” said the boy and gave Felicity the flowers. She just stood there, eyes wide, mouth half open.

“Well… Thank you Dylan,” she said finally, “but it’s some kind of a mistake, you have to return it to this…nice lady here…” Hearing this the florist smiled and shook her head.

“No, no, it’s all good, they are for you,” said the older woman and smiled at Felicity who stood startled in the middle of the shop. “Miss Felicity, am I right?”

“Um… yeah, I mean yes, that’s right…”

“Then please take the bouquet, and have a nice Mother’s Day,” said the florist with a kind smile. “And now excuse me, I have to go back to work,” she explained and left Felicity with the huge flowers. Dylan said ‘Goodbye’ to the nice ladies and started walking out of the flower shop pulling his mother’s hand.

“Hey, mommy,” he said, excitedly jumping around his mom. “Do you like the pretty flowers?”

“Yes, of course I like them, thank you Dylan,” said Felicity and sat on the bench in front of the shop. “Who paid for them? Granny Donna?” Her mother couldn’t visit them this year so it was very likely she ordered the flowers… What for though?

“No… it was Mr. Queen,” said Dylan and hugged his mom. “You know, he says moms deserve the best, just like Granny Donna.” Felicity hugged him back and felt hot tears behind her eyelids. She blinked quickly a few times, she couldn’t cry, not today.

“Thank you, Dylan, I love the flowers. It’s very nice of Mr… Oliver,” she said and kissed his forehead. “Do you want a donut?” she asked, and in trying to pull out a donut from the paper bag she noticed a tiny box attached to the bouquet.

“Can you give me your phone? I have to text Mr. Queen that the Flower Mission went well,” said Dylan, taking the donut from his mom.

“Yes, sure,” responded the boy’s mom and opened the box. Inside she found a keyring with 'THE BEST MOM’ written on it. Felicity smiled at seeing this. She already knew Oliver liked her and Dylan and that he wouldn’t leave them, he would always help Felicity with all the problems she had.

“I’ll say 'Mission complete’,” said Dylan and started typing. He was extremely happy about the flower mission. 

“Thank him too,” pleaded Felicity. “And say that I love the flowers…”

“Mom, just call him to say all these things,” Dylan gave the phone back and got up from the bench. “I only said 'thank you’. Let’s go home, I want ice cream! Did you buy our favourite, mom?”

“All right, I’ll call him,” sighed Felicity. “And of course I bought our favourite!”

“Okay, then.” Dylan and his mother started walking towards their flat. “At home you’ll sit on your armchair and I’ll prepare everything, and I’ll clean up too.”

“Really?” chuckled Felicity. She knew her son wanted the best for her today, but she could imagine the whipped cream on the kitchen walls…

“Really.” Dylan was more than sure he could handle it all. “You will choose the movie to watch.”

“Okay, I can choose,” agreed Felicity. “So what are my options?” she asked, knowing that Dylan never wanted to watch certain movies.

“All of them,” smiled Dylan.

“Even 'The Little Mermaid’, 'Beauty and the Beast’ and 'Frozen’?” wondered his mom.

“Yyy… yeah, even those,” answered Dylan after a short while. Today he could watch one of those movies too.

When Felicity finally came home with Dylan she sat in an armchair as her son started preparing the dessert. He promised his mom that he would call her to get some help with the whipped cream. In the meantime Felicity had a few minutes to thank Oliver for the flowers and the small gift she had already pinned to her keys. Oliver picked up almost instantly.

“Hi Felicity.” She instantly smiled after hearing his voice.

“Hi, are you busy?” asked Felicity, hoping he wasn’t. For a short while she was a little angry that he bought her such an expensive bouquet, but she knew he didn’t do it to upset her.

“No, no, I’m not. No one left in the after school care so I’m going home,” Oliver quickly responded. “Are you okay? You said you’ll call in the evening.”

“Yes, of course I’m okay! I only called to thank you for the flowers…” Felicity leaned over the flowers, smelling them once again.

“Do you like them?”

“Yes, they are beautiful!” said Felicity. “You didn’t have to do that… Well you know you didn’t have to. Of course, silly me. Still I’m glad you did. Buy them. For me… From Dylan,” she babbled. “For Mother’s Day. He was very excited and he loved the bouquet and I loved it too…” Dylan walked into the room and placed a bag of jelly beans on the table as well as juice and two glasses.

“It’s fine, relax, Felicity,” said Oliver. He knew his girl well enough to know she was blushing furiously right now, embarrassed by the awkwardly built sentence. Or rather multiple sentences.

“Okay,” she chuckled and took a deep breath. “So… Oliver, thank you once again…”

“Mom, is it Mr. Queen?” asked Dylan looking at his mother.

“…Uh, wait for a second,” asked Felicity and adverted her head to her son. “Yes, it is, why?”

“Does he like ice cream with whipped cream?”

“I guess he does…” Felicity furrowed her brows in confusion.

“So maybe you can invite him to eat with us? I told him about my new ball that I got from dad and he said one day we can try it with Andy, but he’s your friend so maybe he can come over and try the ball with me alone, Andy has a similar one and I’m sure he won’t be angry with me…”

“Dylan!” Felicity interrupted her son with a laugh. She hated her babbling, but she found it adorable while Dylan was doing it. “It’s okay, I’ll ask Mr. Queen if…”

“Do it or he hangs up,” warned Dylan and sat on the armchair beside her, too afraid he wouldn’t hear anything from the kitchen.

“Oliver are you still there?”

“Yup.”

“So maybe if you don’t have any plans you could come here and eat ice cream with us,” suggested Felicity.

“With whipped cream!” yelled Dylan to the phone and Felicity quickly turned the speaker on.

“Wow,” laughed Oliver. “Hey, Dylan, with whipped cream you say?”

“Yes, and with chocolate chip and sliced bananas…” continued the boy.

“Then I guess I have no choice but to help you eat all the goodness,” said Oliver.

“Yes, we have so much of it that we could use some help,” smiled Felicity, looking at Dylan.

“I only hope I won’t interrupt the Mother’s Day celebration?”

“No, actually it would be really, really nice if you were here,” confessed Felicity and Dylan clapped his hands in excitement. It made his mother smile. She was glad he liked Oliver. But to Dylan Oliver was still only Felicity’s friend, not a boyfriend, and definitely not a 'daddy type’.

“I’ll be there in ten minutes! Well… maybe fifteen,” said Oliver, already starting the car. He wanted to go to the shop and buy some sweets, not to go empty handed.

“We’re waiting; I’ll start whipping the cream,” said Felicity, getting up. “See you soon!”

“See you!” smiled Oliver. He thought a lot about spending time with Felicity and Dylan, but he was a little afraid now. What if Dylan noticed that his relationship with his mother was a little different than just friendship? What if he got mad and upset Felicity again? Oliver tried to shake these thoughts off, but Dylan was a smart boy…

Oliver parked in front of Felicity’s flat, quickly texted Thea that he would be at home later than planned and got out of the car. He started running up the stairs and finally he knocked on the door. He didn’t even have time to blink before the door opened.

“Good afternoon Mr. Queen,” Dylan greeted him with a wide smile. His mom was standing next to the table smiling at Oliver, who hesitantly walked into the small living room. The first thing he saw was the large bouquet he ordered. It was looking funny in a bucket; Felicity probably didn’t have a vase that was big enough. Like with almost everything he did around Felicity after some time he realised that maybe the flowers were too…big? Too expensive? Too fancy? He was glad she wasn’t angry at him, she probably realised he meant well. Next time he was going to buy something modest.

“Hello Oliver, come in,” said Felicity and straightened her dress nervously. She prayed for no awkward situations today.

“Good afternoon,” Oliver looked at Felicity and smiled at her nervously. She smiled back and nodded her head to reassure him. “Dylan, I hope you and your mom like apple pie?” Oliver gave the boy the bag and Dylan ran to the kitchen.

“Thank you, we love apple pie, right Dylan?”

“Right… Thank you,” said the boy and put the pie on the table.

“I’m sorry,” Felicity went to the kitchen and carried three bowls of the dessert. “He’s very excited that you came,” she explained.

“I’m excited too,” admitted Oliver.

“We were going to watch a movie, but if you don’t want to we can totally do it another time…”

“No, no, I’d love to watch a movie with you,” said Oliver and started eating his ice cream. “Wow, that’s really good…”

“Our favourite,” reminded him Dylan with a wide smile.

“Now my favourite too!” laughed Oliver. “What are we watching?” he asked, looking at Dylan.

“Mommy chose something for today. Mommy?”

“Hercules,” answered Felicity, sitting on the sofa. “Is Hercules okay?”

“Awesome, I love Hercules!” Oliver got more comfortable on the chair, smiling at his girlfriend. “Dylan? What do you think?”

“I love it too!” Dylan got up and went to sit next to his mom. He snuggled against her side and she kissed his forehead. “Love you, mommy.” Felicity kissed him again and Oliver’s heart warmed up. He knew Felicity had problems with her son sometimes, but he was happy to see not all days were bad. The only thing he didn’t understand was the tears he saw in her eyes for a brief moment. She was good at hiding her worries from him, but he was getting to know her better and better every day. After ice cream, apple pie, a short football game in the park and delicious pizza for Oliver it was time to go home. When Dylan went to take a bath Oliver and Felicity could talk alone for a while.

“Thank you again Oliver,” started Felicity. “Not only for flowers and the present, but…for today. For everything today.”

“You’re welcome, I had a lot of fun,” admitted Oliver and leaned down to kiss his pretty girl. “Felicity?”

“Yes?”

“You’re okay, right?” he asked, worried. Felicity took a sharp breath, shaking her head.

“I am,” she said, not looking at him. “I just… I have something to deal with, but I can handle it.”

“Of course you can, my damsel in distress,” Oliver smiled at her. “But I’m worried, I wish I could help.”

“I’ll tell you if I am not able to deal with it,” Felicity had tears in her eyes again today and it broke Oliver’s heart. He hugged her and kissed her again.

“Bye,” he said softly, but let Felicity kiss him one more time.

“Bye,” she said and stepped away so he could open the door. After he left Felicity leaned on the door and let the tears fall. She had no idea what to do now. She had been in a situation like this before, but this time it seemed to be worse. When Dylan was younger she didn’t work too much. She had only one job that was enough to pay for everything. Dylan needed food, diapers, toys and clothes. Now he needed much more. Going to the best school in town, lots of food, computer games, new clothes, new shoes every two weeks - not any shoes. The best sports shoes ever, the ones that every single boy at school had. He also wanted swimming classes and sports camp. So much more than before and that’s why Felicity had a regular job at the bistro, as well as 15 extra hours there and a job at the gas station that lasted for one more week. Unfortunately now she had been left only with the extra hours. That was not enough to pay for the apartment and there was also Dylan’s school, school books, food and the camp! Oh, and new shoes that Dylan outgrew again. She took her phone and dialled her mother, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

“Hello?”

“Happy Mother’s Day Mom!” sang Felicity.

“Aww thank you my baby girl, how are you doing?” asked Donna, clearly happy that she was hearing from her daughter.

“I’m fine, Dylan’s brushing his teeth and I’m just sitting… not doing anything really.”

“Cleaning after the annual ice cream party if I know you, Felicity,” said Donna, who knew Felicity couldn’t just sit doing nothing.

“Well actually, Oliver was here and he cleaned everything and Dylan helped him,” explained Felicity, who had been politely kicked out from the kitchen so the boys could wash the dishes.

“Wow, your handsome Oliver? Cleaning?”

“Yeah mom,” smiled Felicity. “My handsome Oliver washing the dishes.”

“Seems like a good guy,” noted her mom.

“He is awesome! He really is… Oh, Dylan, do you want to talk to granny?” asked Felicity when Dylan came out from the bathroom and sat on the bed. That was a close one! She hoped Dylan didn’t hear the 'handsome Oliver’ part of the conversation…

“Yes! I have to tell her about today’s football game with Mr. Queen!”

“Mom? Dylan wants to talk to you,” announced Felicity, sitting on the bed too.

“Yes, honey, talk to you soon!” said Donna and Dylan quickly took the phone from his mom. Felicity was just sitting there watching Dylan as he was talking to Donna, laughing, jumping on the bed… Felicity couldn’t even hear what he was saying, she tried not to cry, not again. She had to get a grip. Watching Dylan carefully she took her laptop and started looking at job offers. There were not many offers for waiters. Felicity wrote down a few numbers and she was going to close the site when she saw another advertisement:

BARTENDER AT THE BEST CLUB IN TOWN  
HIGH SALARY STARTING NEXT WEEK

What really caught her eye was the salary. That would be enough to pay for Dylan’s summer camp! Without thinking Felicity quickly sent a mail with her references. She knew she didn’t belong to that world, but she could try. And she was going to. She didn’t even have time to blink before she got a reply.

“Dear Miss Smoak,

Your references are very good, a person with experience - that’s who I am looking for right now. I’d love to talk to you in person. What about a meeting tomorrow? I’m at the club office between 5pm - 9pm. That’s when I’ll be seeing all of the candidates. After a few days of training you’d be starting work on Monday - hopefully. If you have any questions please call me.

Regards,

Thomas Merlyn

Owner and manager of Verdant”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! :) Message me if you ave questions :) Here or on tumblr. ~missfsmoak


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello :) Another chapter! :) Thank you for nice comments, kudos and bookmarks! I LOVE THEM!!! I appreciate all of them and I’m happy that you take your time leaving some support. THANK YOU! I hope you will like this chapter. So… That’s it, I won’t be talking much longer :)
> 
> EDITED BY an awesome tumblr user youfixedmybrokenwings :) THANK YOU!!!

Verdant was a fancy place. That was the first thing that went through Felicity’s mind when she saw the modern building. She didn’t belong there for sure, but she had to try for her son. Two huge bodyguards stood near the entrance, watching her closely. Felicity felt uneasy, her cheeks burning up when she realised she must look ridiculous in the white shirt and a worn dark green jacket that she bought years ago when she started jobhunting. For a second she wanted to leave. She froze in place and tried to walk away, but then she reminded herself that she had to at least try. It’s not like it would be the first time she was laughed at, right?

“Good evening,” said Felicity to the men that stood between her and the door. She held her head up, shoulders back in a show of confidence.

“Good evening, Miss…?”

“Felicity Smoak,” answered Felicity when the man turned on a tablet to check the list.

“And you’re here for…?”

“The job interview.”

“Right, Ms. Smoak, can I see your ID please?”

“My… Oh, yeah, I mean yes, of course,” she flustered and started looking for her wallet. Why did her hands have to shake so much?

“We’re sorry for the inconvenience Ms. Smoak, but we have a closed party and it’s a standard procedure,” said the guard after looking at Felicity’s ID closely. “Ok, go through the glass doors and on the right you will see the stairs. Go up there and you’ll see Mr. Merlyn’s office. Good luck!” He handed her ID back and moved away from the door, opening it for her.

“Thank you, sir,” said Felicity, smiling. She took a deep breath and stepped into the night club. Inside she stopped short. Now she knew why the guard had said ‘go through the glass door’. She’d thought it was obvious that to enter the building she had to go through the door; he’d meant the second glass door. She smiled at another pair of guards, bid them 'Good evening’ and they opened the door for her. Felicity immediately frowned on hearing the loud music, laughing and squealing She quickly looked around and went straight to the stairs. She was surprised that there were so many guards in this place! After passing by the next two of them she started running up. She knew she would never belong in this place, but she started jumping in joy when Mr. Merlyn told her she’d got the job. Now she only had to get used to the noise, strange music vibes and drunk people. Oh, and to Tommy’s weird jokes that were making her laugh out loud. She actually laughed a few times during the interview, which was more like pleasant talk with an old friend… They didn’t even go into his office, but sat on a huge balcony from where the whole dance floor was visible. He had to yell at her for the whole interview over the beats but Felicity immediately liked her boss. She was embarrassed to no end when he said that the dress code for work is “anything but old school”, but other than that she had a feeling he liked her too. She was starting training on Monday and was already introduced to all bodyguards and led around the 'staff only’ rooms. She couldn’t wait to start. The sooner, the better - less time to get nervous. Now she only had to tell Oliver, because he kept saying they were team players now, but she had no idea how to do this. Every time she met him they had a perfect time together. She couldn’t ruin it, could she? No, definitely not. So for now she decided it will be her little secret until she found a good time to tell him. One day when they weren’t with Dylan, when he wasn’t kissing her neck and making her tremble, when he wasn’t whispering sweet words into her ear… One of the days she hoped would never come.  
xxx  
“See? I told you it was a good idea,” said Oliver, walking next to Felicity, with Andy, Dylan and Sara right in front of them. They were in the water park for Andy’s birthday, the children were extremely happy and Oliver had no idea why Felicity wasn’t. “They already love this place!”

“They will drown and we will die in prison,” said Felicity firmly, looking around hesitantly. She hated this idea. Why couldn’t they go to the cinema? Now she was stuck in this awful, dangerous place for the whole day.

“Oh no, Felicity, please, stop!” said Oliver. “They can swim, besides they will be with us the whole time,” he assured her and wrapped his arm around her waist, hidden by the towel she was clutching around her shoulders. “Look, they found free sunbeds already! We’ll just leave our towels there and go somewhere… The blue slide looks nice for a start…”

“Water slide? Oliver, are you insane? It’s not safe!” opposed Felicity. “When Dylan was two he really wanted to go on the slide on the playground so I let him and then it just threw him up in the air and on the ground and he was just laying there in the sand, crying and I had to spend a whole night in the hospital!” babbled Felicity nervously. “Well…more like a few hours, but still my point is that slides are dangerous! You probably think I’m an awful mother, but I tried the slide at first and I was okay. I should have known that a twenty year old body is different to a two year old body… I knew it was smaller for sure, but how could I know it could fly so high?” Felicity desperately gasped for breath. “The doctors said it couldn’t have been this high because they couldn’t even feel the bump on his head, but they also said that…”

Oliver couldn’t help but watch her. Rosy cheeks, wide open eyes, concentrated look on her pretty face. He loved her babbling. Sometimes he wondered how many random people had already heard similar stories, because he knew she tended to babble in supermarkets, or when she accidentally bumped into someone on the sidewalk.

“Mom, breathe!” said Dylan and shook his mother’s hand. She quickly focused her eyes on him and her cheeks turned into a deep purple shade. “You tell this story every time I’m on the playground. They also said it’s good you overreacted because children’s heads break easily,” he finished for his mom who had sat down on the sunbed, clearly embarrassed. Sara went closer to Felicity and hugged her.

“Don’t worry auntie, after Andy was born my mommy was keeping him in a stroller and one day I leaned on it and I think I was too heavy because Andy just slid out of it,” said Sara, quickly adding, “and we both had bumps on our heads. So strollers are far more dangerous than slides,” Sara reasoned with Felicity making Oliver laugh. He remembered that situation and now he could laugh because it all ended well. Felicity stared at the excited children for a while and finally looked at Oliver.

“Fine, go,” she said with a resigned sigh. She knew they didn’t go to the water park to sit on sunbeds. “Be careful,” Felicity warned them and, carefully holding the towel around her body, lay down.

“What are you doing?” asked Oliver, his brows furrowed in confusion.

“Um…I’m staying here to watch over our things,” she announced and tried to make herself comfortable.

“No one is going to steal our towels.”

“Who knows? Maybe that’s what some people are up to…”

“Hey, kids, go wait for us near the slide,” pleaded Oliver.

“Don’t go into the water alone!” shouted Felicity and the children nodded, politely waiting.

“Felicity, what is it?” asked Oliver, sitting next to his girlfriend. He’d wanted today to be a nice one for her too and not just the kids, but now he realised he could have let her stay at home like she asked. “And don’t say 'nothing’…

"Nothing,” she answered, but Oliver was staring at her, clearly not buying her answer. “I just thought it would be nice if someone stayed here… watching the things… but yeah, we only brought towels so…”

“Felicity…” Oliver put his hand on her shoulder, his eyes concerned. “If it’s about your body…”

“What? Oliver, no!” Felicity had some serious problems with her self confidence, but right now she was too stressed to think about that. She probably should have told Oliver she couldn’t swim. She wanted to, but they were visiting John and Lyla and everyone including their children were talking about their trip to the water parks, saying they were awesome. Then Dylan started talking about the few swimming classes he’d taken this year with Andy and she felt too ashamed that she was the only one who had never swum before. The Diggles were her friends, but she was so different from them that sometimes she wondered how their friendship was even possible.

“What then?” he asked softly. Felicity just shook her head.

“Let’s go,” she said, getting up. “After you, Mister.” Oliver started walking towards the children and Felicity slowly put her towel on the sunbed and followed him. She hoped Oliver wouldn’t throw her into the pool!

“Oliver?” she called him and Oliver immediately turned. “I can’t swim,” confessed Felicity in a small voice, looking up at him nervously through her lashes. Oliver smiled.

“I thought so,” he said. “You know what? It gives us reasons to cuddle,” Oliver walked up to the wide slide. “Okay kids, Felicity can’t swim so I’ll go with her first, okay? Just to show her it’s not that dangerous,” the kids nodded and let Oliver and Felicity sit together on the slide. “See? Cuddling is nice,” whispered Oliver into her ear, hugging her tightly, trying to make her feel safe.

“I’ll drown down there,” said Felicity quietly, squeezing Oliver’s muscular arms.

“The pool is only knee deep down there so don’t panic, I’m holding you,” Oliver reassured her, then he pushed off and they both started sliding down the kiddie slide.

“Yeah, you’re hugging me so tight I’m almost not scared anymore-e-e-e…” Felicity squealed when the water splashed around her, but Oliver was right, the pool was shallow and even she wouldn’t have drowned in it. And she had to admit she liked it! Right behind them Andy, Dylan and Sara slid down, laughing loudly. This was going to be a good day. The best of the best, actually.

“Mr. Queen?” Dylan and Oliver were sitting on the bench together, tired after the whole day of swimming. Felicity and Sara were still in the dressing room and Andy was busy talking to his parents, who’d called him with birthday wishes. “It was fun today, thank you for taking me and mom with you,” he said smilling. “Now she can swim a little bit!”

“Yeah, she can,” laughed Oliver. The kids had a lot of fun teaching Felicity to swim and after the first few hours of complaining and whining she started swimming and enjoyed it a lot. “I’m glad you had fun, when I’ll be going out with Andy and Sara again I’ll let you know, okay?”

“Okay!” Dylan clapped his hands in excitement. “We could come here once again! You, mommy and Andy and Sara,” he said, but then his expression fell. “You know, it felt like it was my birthday, not Andy’s,” he confessed. “Because it was the best day ever! It really felt like I had a big family, like Andy was my brother and Sara my older sister…I wanted to have siblings to play with, but I can’t have any.”

“But you have Sara and Andy, they play with you,” whispered Oliver. He wasn’t surprised that Dylan’s biggest dream was having a real, big family, but it hit Oliver hard when the boy said it out loud, in a broken voice. “You have an awesome mommy who loves you… and a dad…”

“Yeah, I think I have more fun with you than with my dad,” said Dylan and Oliver almost choked on his water. Dylan smacked him on the back as he coughed and spluttered. What had Dylan just said?

“Yeah, you like my mom, don’t you?” Dylan looked at Oliver with his big eyes, pleading for an answer. Oliver was unsure what to say. He loved Felicity. Did it bother the boy or the opposite?

“I do,” he finally said, watching the boy’s reaction carefully.

“My dad is mean sometimes, you know? He says…things…about her,” he whispered, clearly unsure whether he should be telling his PE teacher this, of all people.

“What?” If Oliver wasn’t shocked before, then he was now. If he ever met that son of a bitch he’d throw him out the window. “I mean…what does he say?”

“Lots of things.” The boy looked down at his feet. “I don’t know, lots of things!”

“And you don’t like it,” guessed Oliver. Dylan adored his father, no doubt. He kept talking about him all the time, had been waiting for him to visit, but now it turned out that Cooper wasn’t flawless in the eyes of his son. Oliver felt something deep inside, pride maybe, that Dylan said he was better than his father, but he really hoped that Cooper would become the father Dylan saw him as. Now the perfect image was destroyed when Dylan realised what a real, loving family could look like. His mommy was laughing with all of them, not at home alone like always when dad was taking him out.

“I don’t. I like it when mommy is happy,” Oliver saw the tears in Dylan’s eyes, though he tried to hide them by looking away. His heart hurt seeing the boy like this. He’d thought a lot about his relationship with Felicity and the fact that she had a son never escaped his attention. He’d wondered if he’d be able to love this sweet, babbling child, who was so torn between his parents, but now he had an answer. He loved Dylan too, just as much as he loved his mother. He put a hand against Dylan’s back and softly pulled him towards his side.

“It’s going to be okay,” he whispered. He hated this sentence… For so many years he’d had to repeat it to Thea when she woke up in the middle of the night sobbing, he had to repeat it to himself every single day after his parents’ accident and now he was sitting there with Dylan… The circumstances were different fortunately, but to this boy it was the whole world, the world utterly different from his dreams. He had dreamed of a father, of a happy family and what he got disappointed him. The world he built in his head was collapsing, shaken by the image of this day’s 'happy family’ adventures. He deserved so much more and now he started realising it so Oliver just held him as the tears were falling down his cheeks. Seeing Dylan’s distress, Oliver quietly advised the boy to wipe his face with a sleeve and he quickly obliged.

“Don’t tell mommy I cried, she’ll be sad,” he said. He knew his mom cried a lot every night and tonight he hoped she wouldn’t, not after a whole day of laughing.

Laughing and swimming was so exhausting that Dylan and Andy fell asleep in the car on the way home. Felicity quietly talked to Sara and Oliver about the adventures in the water park. After some time the car was parked in front of Felicity’s flat and she and Oliver got up from the car. Felicity took sleeping Dylan in her arms before Oliver could protest.

“I’ll carry him,” he offered, seeing his small girl carrying her quite heavy son.

“No, it’s fine,” she said with a smile. “Thank you for today, Oliver.”

“My pleasure,” he responded and Felicity knew he meant the cuddling on water slides. “Come on, I’ll carry him, he’s too heavy,” insisted Oliver.

“He’s not, really, besides I think it’s illegal to leave children alone in the car,” she said and started walking away. “See you soon Oliver, and thank you again.”

“See you soon…” Oliver watched as she opened the door and disappeared inside the building. He knew she was strong in every possible way and felt warmth in his chest thinking of her. He really hoped to see her soon, maybe go to dinner with her? He knew he shouldn’t rush things, but right now all he wanted was to go home with them, cuddle on the sofa and watch Disney movies, while eating their favorite ice cream, of course. He wasn’t a patient man, but he was willing to wait for Felicity as long as he had to. It was this thought that stopped him following her into the apartment building. Instead he turned, slid into the driver’s seat and drove Sara and Andy back home.

He didn’t know she was thinking the same as she tucked Dylan into bed. She wanted him to be by her side from now on, being a perfect dad for Dylan, a father the boy truly deserved. As she lay in bed, her head full of thoughts of Oliver and a potential future, she didn’t know he was also scared that the fragile thing between them would break, each so scared that they waited for a 'better moment’ for everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU FOR READING :)


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi :) Another chapter! :) Thank you for nice comments, kudos, bookmarks and messages! I LOVE THEM!!! I appreciate all of them and I’m happy that you take your time leaving some support. THANK YOU! I hope you will like this chapter. I APOLOGIZE IT TOOK SO LONG!!! :( Lots of things are happening in my life right now... 
> 
> EDITED BY tumblr user: YOUFIXEDMYBROKENWINGS :) thank you my precious angel!!!! :))))) <333

The music was far too loud for Felicity’s taste. The blinking, colourful lights were making her vision blurry, her shorts were too short and too tight… Now she knew why Tommy Merlyn paid the bartenders as much as he did. The job was not difficult though, Felicity was taught how to make fancy drinks and what kind of whisky to serve to the VIPs. The dress code was not established, but Felicity quickly learned that bare legs brought great tips. A few months ago, not being confident with her body, she would have never worn shorts, but Oliver kept telling her over and over that she was beautiful and finally she believed him. After many times of turning the lights off in the bedroom Felicity finally realised that she really was beautiful. Oliver was slowly making her confident again and she wasn’t complaining about his methods. He was her perfect man, a prince from her dreams and Felicity wasn’t afraid of him leaving anymore. Not after their first night together. When she’d woken up in the morning, tangled in his sheets, she’d panicked when she found he wasn’t there with her. She’d tried to collect all of her clothes that were strewn around the apartment and that had led her to Oliver, who was in the kitchen making breakfast for her in nothing but tight boxers. So after her freak out he’d carried her back to bed and forbidden her to leave until breakfast was ready. The sad thing was, all Oliver got for his efforts was a yelling at for not being with her when she woke up. He had to promise not to make Felicity breakfast again and then he made love to her until she finally said out loud that Oliver was never going to leave her.

“Felicity, table 3 wants another bottle of the same champagne they had before,” yelled one of the bartenders and poured tequila into three glasses that stood in front of her.

“Mhm… That would be this one,” murmured Felicity, taking the bottle and sighing loudly before walking up the stairs to where the VIP tables were placed. On her way down she met Thomas Merlyn, the night club runner.

“Hey, Felicity, I’m meeting the co-owner of this place to talk about a few things, could you please bring some scotch from the closed drawer to my office?” asked the man and winked at Felicity. “And don’t tell anyone, we’ll be working after all,” he laughed. “The papers are too boring when you’re sober, you know?”

“Yes, Mr. Merlyn, I’ll bring it in a minute,” smiled Felicity and her eyes widened when she saw her boss’ angry face. “I mean…Tommy,” she laughed nervously and felt her cheeks burning up.

“Oh, much better!” Tommy smiled kindly at her and ran upstairs. Felicity quickly went to stand behind the counter. She poured a few drinks and, not wanting to keep her boss waiting, opened the drawer and for a second she wondered what to take. Every bottle probably cost as much as Dylan’s summer camp, if not more. Finally she was running up the stairs, checking on the VIPs’ tables. She’d been in Tommy’s office a few times, but never when the club was open for business. She had no idea how could he talk about business in this noise!

“Knock, knock,” said Felicity loudly, opening the door. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know if you heard me knocking…” she closed the door behind her and suddenly all of the noise and loud music disappeared. “Wow, it’s really silent here,” she added. “Sound proof doors and walls! Of course! Who would want to have an office in such a loud place…” Felicity cursed herself for being so stupid. She started babbling again.

“Felicity?” Felicity froze. She knew this voice. She knew this voice very well. It was the voice that not so long ago was whispering sweet words into her ear. It belonged to the person she lied to, or at least with whom she hadn’t shared the truth. Oliver turned in his seat to look at the babbling woman that, he had no doubt, was his girlfriend. The silence was unbearable. Oliver was looking at his girl confused, she was looking at her feet realising the club that Oliver owned and worked at for a few years was Verdant. Tommy… Well, Tommy got comfortable in his chair and looked curiously at them both. Someone could quicky get him some popcorn and Tommy would be sitting there, watching the whole scene and impatiently waiting for what was about to come.

“Oliver! Verdant… It’s Verdant. I had no idea this was your night club. So yeah, I was waiting for a good time to tell you…” Felicity dared to look up at her boyfriend and squeezed the bottle of scotch in her now sweating hands. “I guess now is the best time to tell you that I was fired from my old job but Mr. Merlyn, I mean Tommy was so kind as to hire me here…” she paused to take a deep breath.

“You were fired?” Oliver got up from the chair and walked up to her. He knew she was struggling with money and he thought she probably didn’t take the news about losing her job very well… Who would? He was only upset about one thing - that she had to go through this all alone.

“Yeah, some time ago,” sighed Felicity quietly. “But the owner let me keep the extra hours so that would be about two days per week…”

“You didn’t tell me anything! You should have… You could have said something,” Oliver told her, not fully understanding why she hadn’t.

“Can we talk tomorrow?” asked Felicity hesitantly and walked to the desk to place the bottle on it. “That is if you still want to talk to me at all? It’s crazy busy down there and I should go back…”

“Yeah, go,” said Oliver, looking at her. Felicity couldn’t hold his gaze; she looked down, feeling dull pain in her chest. Was that it? Was Oliver that mad at her? Felicity blinked several times and took a deep breath before turning around and walking to the door. “Felicity? I can wait for you and walk you home later,” offered Oliver and she quickly nodded.

“If it won’t be too late…”

“It won’t be!” Oliver and Felicity almost forgot about Tommy who still was in the room, listening to the conversation. “Felicity, you finish early tonight,” he announced. “And on your way out take a bottle of something good, Oliver’ll pay for it,” Tommy smiled at Felicity who stood by the door, confused. “And now go, the sooner we finish the better!” Felicity left the room in hurry. Fortunately she had no time to worry due to the crowd in the night club.

“Oliver!” Tommy yelled after Felicity closed the door. “Do you have a girl?”

“Um, yeah, I do,” Oliver sighed, still thinking of what had just happened.

“And you haven’t told me?”

“What are you, a gossip girl? You’re acting like Thea,” said Oliver, pouring some whiskey into a glass. Today had been a long day and he didn’t need Tommy bothering him with all kinds of questions right now.

“I’m a gossip boy, come on, tell me something!”

“Felicity is my girlfriend, okay? Is that enough?” asked Oliver impatiently and looked at his friend. He was slightly amused by Tommy’s interest in Felicity.

“Hmm… she’s your girlfriend and she’s working here for two shifts?” wondered Tommy. He hadn’t known Felicity for a long time, but he thought she was a kind, helpful person, always smiling. And she was working her hands off. He thought that maybe she had student loans or something like that to pay off, but most of the girls Oliver used to date would simply ask for the money - or steal some - knowing Oliver wouldn’t see a difference on his bank account. This Felicity could be the first girl who liked Oliver for being his grumpy self, not for his money…

“I offered help many times, but she never accepted,” sighed Oliver. “She’s been struggling with money her whole life… And now she was fired? I could have helped her out or hire her here…”

“Seeing her reaction that’s probably what she tried to avoid,” noticed Tommy. He was smiling at Oliver like a man possessed. “She seems to be a good girl…is she?”

“Tommy!”

“What? I’m happy you finally found someone who hopefully won’t try to steal your fortune. Someone who wouldn’t want your company to become hers,” continued Tommy, “someone who won’t use your credit card without your knowledge…”

“I got it,” interrupted Oliver. “Yeah, she’s different,” he sighed. “She’s working her butt off for her son…” Tommy choked on his whiskey.

“Uh, her what?” he asked and Oliver glared at him.

“Her son,” repeated Oliver sternly.

“Please tell me you’re not caught up in some terrible family drama,” worried Tommy.

“Well not in the way you may think,” replied Oliver. “There definitely is some drama, but we’re getting there. And her son is an amazing kid.”

“And his father?”

“He makes the drama part,” said Oliver, getting up from his chair. “Sorry, I can’t even think about this stuff right now,” he announced, pointing at the papers. All he could think about was Felicity. Right now she was probably worrying herself to no end, babbling and twisting her ponytail.

“I have to say that I understand why she did that,” said Tommy slowly. “Unlike any other girl she wants to show you she’s not after your money, it’s a good thing.”

“But I know that already and I want to help her!”

“She doesn’t want help. How old is she? 25?” asked Tommy.

“Yeah…”

“And if she has problems with the baby daddy it was probably not planned,” he concluded. “She’s very young, I’m 30 and I don’t think of babies… I think she’s trying to prove that she’s not a damsel in distress, she doesn’t need anyone to come to the rescue.”

“You’re right,” admitted Oliver. “But it hurts to see how she struggles every day.”

“Then maybe take care of the kid?” offered Tommy. “Change the diaper, feed…she’s not breast feeding, is she?”

“Uh… he’s 7 years old,” said Oliver, a little confused and annoyed. Tommy’s eyes went wide.

“He’s what? But she’s…but…25 minus 7 is like…” he stuttered.

“Tommy! What the hell? You better start wondering if you don’t have a 14 year old child out there somewhere!”

“Oh no,” gasped Tommy, clearly terrified. “You think it’s possible?”

“Seriously?”

“Maybe not,” he said and sat silently on his chair.

“Yeah, better not… Can I take her home now?” asked Oliver, walking to the door. “I really have to talk to her.”

“Sure, man,” agreed Tommy. “I think I remember how to mix drinks,” he smiled at his best friend. “See you soon then?”

“See you soon,” said Oliver and started walking down the stairs, then through the dance floor to the counter where Felicity was standing.

“Hey, meet me out the front as soon as Tommy takes you off,” shouted Oliver to Felicity who quickly nodded.

“Yeah, sure! Oliver, I’m sorry…” she started apologising in a brief pause between customers, but Oliver interrupted her.

“I can’t hear a thing, we’ll talk in a minute!” he half-shouted and elbowed his way through the crowd, disappearing through the door. Felicity blinked a few times, feeling a dull ache spread through her chest. She finally believed that Oliver was there to lean on, that he cared for her and Dylan, and now she feared he was going to leave. She wasn’t a team player, she failed to tell him about some important stuff in her life and now she was worried about what was to come. She didn’t want to tell anyone, not just Oliver! She hadn’t even told her mother, not wanting to worry her. The only person who knew was John Diggle because she’d asked him to print some of her recommendations, but he’d promised not to tell anyone, not even Lyla. Felicity was a person who expected a lot from herself. Every failure was something she was ashamed of, after so many times of people upsetting her she chose to be as strong as possible, and just as independent.

After a short while Felicity started walking out of the club, the loud music getting quieter with every step, the air cooler. She almost ran into Oliver when she saw him, trying to apologise, maybe even plead with him not to leave her…

“Aren’t you cold in those shorts?” asked Oliver when he saw her.

“I…no. Uh, Oliver, I’m sorry,” she started, not really knowing what to say. She really was sorry, she didn’t want to lie to Oliver, she wanted to tell him. “I had no idea it’s your club, I didn’t… I didn’t want you to find out like that,” she sighed. “Please say something,” she begged.

“I don’t know what to say,” he whispered. “I just ask myself one thing, don’t you trust me, Felicity?”

“It’s not about trust!”

“What is it about then?” asked Oliver, clearly annoyed. “I don’t understand,” he said. “I care for you, I really like your son, I am trying to help the both of you not because I think you can’t handle it, but because we’re supposed to be a team now and I just wanted to make things easier for you!”

“It’s really not about trust. Everything was so good, so perfect between us, I was afraid it would be gone once I told you,” she confessed. “Remember Mother’s Day?” Oliver nodded. “I told you something was wrong and that I would tell you if I couldn’t handle it.”

“Mother’s Day? That was a crazy long time ago!”

“Not really… But I handled it!” said Felicity. “I got a new job immediately and it was all good, but I thought you’d be worried…”

“Yes, no doubt I’d be worried.” Oliver was looking at her, straight in the eyes, but Felicity couldn’t hold his gaze. She looked down at her bare legs that now were shivering from the cold night air.

“I’m sorry,” whispered Felicity with a broken voice.

“Come here,” said Oliver and pulled his girlfriend into a hug. They were standing like that in the cold night, Oliver felt Felicity’s hot tears against his shirt. He knew she didn’t want to cry, he didn’t want her to cry either. It hurt him to feel how sobs were shaking her small body, fist holding tight to his shirt.

“I’m sorry,” she gasped once again and felt Oliver’s arms tighten around her. “I didn’t even tell my mom and I tell her everything!”

“It’s okay…”

“I told John, but only because I needed to leave Dylan with someone…” sobbed Felicity.

“It’s fine, it really is,” said Oliver gently rubbing her back. “We should go home, you’re tired.”

“Hmm… yeah, actually I am,” admitted Felicity and took Oliver’s hand as they started walking down the street. “Are you very mad at me?” she asked and Oliver’s heart broke in half at her trembling voice.

“Just a little,” replied Oliver squeezing her palm. “Not mad enough to leave,” he whispered. He knew that was what Felicity had been really afraid of, and heard her sigh of relief. She wrapped an arm around his waist and walked clumsily, hugging him with all the strength she had. They walked together on the sidewalk leaving Verdant far, far behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading :) ~missfsmoak


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello :) THANK YOU FOR ALL KUDOS, BOOKMARKS and COMMENTS! :) I am very happy for all of them! :) There are not many chapters left. So... before you read this chapter I’ll remind you of what our Captain said: It’s always darkest before dawn :)
> 
> Chapter was edited by the best beta ever: youfixedmybrokenwings :)

“John, it’s a terrible idea,” said Oliver. He was sitting on a sofa in his friend’s living room, drinking beer.

“You know she’s not the one to ask for help, but right now that’s what she needs!” argued John.

“Maybe not…” Oliver sighed. “She has a job, a well paid one, she can handle this.”

“She’s sleeping on her feet every single time I see her, it’s not going to end well, you know?” opposed Diggle. Oliver knew that very well, but he didn’t know what to do anymore. She never listened to him when he told her to slow down.

“Then maybe go fix her sink?”

“What’s wrong with her sink?” wondered John.

“It’s…pretending to be a fountain,” said Oliver quietly. “My plumbing skills are not too good,” he admitted.

“Just take the money, Oliver!” said John, clearly annoyed.

“No! No way! Take care of Dylan, he’s having a hard time too, that’s how you’ll help her,“ he insisted. “Shitty Cooper is being shitty again.”

“Can’t we just break his nose?”

“Yeah… I wish,” confessed Felicity’s boyfriend. “But she said she could do it on her own, I don’t want to take it away from her…”

“Yeah, you just want her to work her hands off…”

“John!” yelled Oliver a little too loud. They were alone in the house, but still he shouldn’t have done that. He knew what John was trying to do and that Felicity wouldn’t like it. Not that he liked the idea of her doing everything without help, but what could he do?

“Just take the money,” said Diggle, looking him straight in the eyes.

“She’ll be mad at me, I can’t do that!” Deep down he wanted to help her with everything he could, but on the other hand she’d specifically asked him not to…

“Yes, that’s why I’m doing it, not you,” John stood his ground, not letting Oliver talk him out of it.

“Fine,” Oliver finally agreed.  
“Whatever,“ he said and got up from the couch. “Nice talking to you.” He took the envelope from John and quickly left the apartment, leaving Diggle standing in the middle of the room.

xxx

Oliver was standing in front of Felicity’s apartment, his finger on the doorbell. He took a few deep breaths and rang. After a few seconds Felicity opened the door, tears were shining in her big, blue eyes, but she smiled when she saw him.

“I hate you!” Oliver heard Dylan’s scream and then the boy shut the bathroom door behind him, way too loud.

“Uh… Hi, Oliver,“ she said, her cheeks deep purple. “Come in, he was yelling at me, not you.”

“Oh…okay, it’s not…it’s not exactly making me feel any better…” confessed Oliver, looking at Felicity expectantly. He wanted her to tell her son to stop behaving like this, but she only sighed, lowering her gaze.

“I can’t blame him,” she whispered. “Cooper insisted on a meeting today, I was’t too happy because it’s my only day off and I wanted to spend some time with Dylan, but I didn’t say a word, I promise I didn’t say a word about it, I agreed! And an hour ago Cooper called the meeting off and told Dylan that I wasn’t happy about the meeting and now he’s mad at me, of course not at him, because I’m the bad guy as always!” Tears were running down Felicity’s cheeks as she was whispering, her face hidden in Oliver’s chest. “And I really wanted him to come, Dylan was so excited, I thought if he insisted on it he’d be here! Cooper! Not Dylan, Dylan was here of course, where else would he be?” she sobbed. “It’s all my fault!”

“Is it?” asked Oliver, hugging his girlfriend tightly.

“Uh, no, not really,” she said. “I couldn’t do anything…”

“Exactly, you couldn’t do anything, it’s not your fault, it’s going to be okay,“ said Oliver, gently rubbing her back.

“I want to break this asshole’s nose!” whispered Felicity into Oliver’s ear, not wanting Dylan to hear it.

“You’re not the only one,” chuckled Oliver and let his girlfriend from his arms; his heart warmed up at the way she smiled at him. “Let’s go get Dylan out of the bathroom,” he suggested.  
“It’s pointless, he does that all the time when he’s mad at me, he’ll eventually come out on his own,” said Felicity, sitting helplessly on the floor in the small corridor as Oliver walked up to the bathroom door.

“Good morning Dylan, it’s Oliver…” Dylan heard knocking on the door and Oliver’s voice and suddenly felt very guilty. Mr. Queen said moms deserve the best and now he’d argued with his mother and told her a few things he shouldn’t have said. The boy decided to sit quietly, pretending not to be there. He wondered if Oliver knew what his mom did, that she’d forbidden his dad to come to see him. Maybe then he wouldn’t be angry at him, but at Felicity? Maybe he could help him go and see dad? “Dylan, I brought cookies, get out of there and we’ll eat them,“ Oliver kept trying to convince Felicity’s son. “Can I come in?”

“Yeah…” Dylan decided to let his favourite adult in and Oliver entered the small bathroom to find the boy sitting on a rug in the corner, his face red and wet from tears, arms around his tiny body. Oliver looked back at Felicity who only shrugged her shoulders helplessly. The bathroom door didn’t have a lock, but Felicity knew her son escaped there because he wanted to be alone and in their tiny apartment it was the only place where he could shut the door behind him so Felicity had stopped invading his privacy, and when he was angry she let him stay there and cry his anger away. He used to be very polite, Felicity had never had any problems with him. She thought she’d raised him well until he met Cooper. That’s when he started getting crazy and Felicity didn’t know how to deal with this. She wanted to ground him or give him a long and loud lecture, but on the other hand she knew what he was going through and didn’t want it to be any more difficult for him, she grew up without a father too, after all.

“Hey,” said Oliver and looked around for a place to sit in. Finally he found a place in the shower where he sat facing Dylan. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” answered the boy wiping his nose with a sleeve. Oliver unwrapped the cookies and handed them to Felicity’s son. He hesitantly took them and started slowly eating one of them.

“Maybe you want to go out with me today?” suggested Oliver. “We could play soccer on the school playground, I have a spare key.”

“I don’t wanna play today,” hiccuped Dylan. “I want my dad.” Oliver knew Felicity was still sitting in the corridor listening to everything they said and he felt a dull ache in his chest. She tried so hard for her son to have a great life and Shitty Cooper was destroying it. Oliver wondered if the man never noticed. How could anyone be so irresponsible? Cooper wasn’t 18 years old anymore, he was a grown man living an adult life.

“I’m afraid I can’t bring your father here,” sighed Oliver. He couldn’t talk badly about this jerk in front of Dylan, no matter how much he wanted to.

“But we were supposed to go to the movies and Big Belly Burger!” whined the boy.

“We could still go there,” told him Oliver, patiently sitting in the small shower.

“I want to go there only with dad,” reasoned Dylan and looked away. Oliver was getting on his nerves. It was obvious now that he wasn’t going to help him get to his beloved father.

“Okay. Then we’ll just sit here. It’s a shame we don’t have enough cookies for the whole day,” sighed Oliver reaching for one of the chocolate goods.

Dylan was a little confused. He’d thought Oliver was going to try and talk him into going, but it looked like he’d given up on this idea.

“So we’re really going to sit here all day?” asked Dylan finally. He was already bored with watching as his favourite adult ate cookies. Oliver wasn’t moving in the shower, as if he was comfortable in there, and didn’t talk at all for the next few minutes.

“You didn’t want to go out,” said Oliver calmly. He hoped Dylan would change his mind soon because the last time he was in a tiny space like this one he was about 9 years old… Now his older body didn’t find being folded like this too comfortable.

“But I’m getting bored here!”

“We could try throwing paper balls into the sink,“ Oliver reached for the toilet paper and after rolling a piece of it he gave the rest to Dylan. The boy looked at Oliver as if he was insane.

“Can we go to the movies?” whispered Dylan. He really wanted to see ‘Finding Dory’ with his father or without him. He didn’t want to spend the rest of this Sunday sitting on the floor throwing toilet paper into the sink, no matter how pleasant it sounded to Oliver.

“Sure we can!” smiled Oliver and started crawling out of the shower. His butt and legs had gone to sleep. “We have to tell your mom to get dressed, she’s still in pajama bottoms!” Oliver ran out from the bathroom on stiff legs and Dylan followed him quickly.

“Mom’s not going with us!” he said loudly. If his mother forbade him to see his dad she would have to stay at home alone. Felicity was still sitting on the floor, too tired to move. She was leaning against the wall, tears were shining in her big, blue eyes, the remains of them still on her cheeks.

“What?” Oliver stood as if he was frozen. This kid was impossible! He looked at Felicity, at her fragile posture and even though he knew she was strong he couldn’t help thinking that she was just a delicate creature not from this world. She looked at Dylan, the sorrow in her eyes making them look like deep oceans. Eyes were the windows of her soul, a milion emotions raging inside. Her face was blank though, which Oliver found a little scary. It looked like her body had just given up, like she was hiding her feelings for too long and burrowed them too deep for them to resurface now. He only hoped that the raging storm wouldn’t devastate her. “What did you just say?” Oliver knew Dylan wasn’t always an angel, but that was a low blow. “Why are you being so rude?” He wasn’t shouting, his voice wasn’t even loud, but it was stern.

“I-I…” stuttered Dylan. He inhaled sharply. “Because mom didn’t let dad come here!” he yelled, his arms crossed defensively. Oliver wanted to say something, anything, that Cooper ‘just couldn’t make it today’, but Felicity spoke first. He was surprised that her voice was steady, loud and clear, not hoarse from all the crying.

“I promise Dylan,” she said, “I promised you I would let your dad pick you up. Why wouldn’t I? I just want you to be happy, I don’t want you to yell at me like you’ve been doing all morning. Do you think I did this? Do you think that I enjoy making you feel like this?” Felicity got up from the floor. “I’ll tell you, I don’t. I hate making you feel like this, I hate it when you cry. I know I’m not a perfect mom, I know I can’t give you everything that I want to… From new labelled shoes to…to a father.” Tears were furiously leaking from her eyes and landing on her clothes and the floor. “I know you’re mad at me. And you have every right to be, but please believe me when I say that it wasn’t me who cancelled the meeting with Dad.”

Dylan stood silent, unsure how to take this news.

“Your father promised he would pick you up today and I was happy about it, I was pleased for you to go. But an hour ago he texted me to say he couldn’t meet up any more. I promise you Dylan, it’s the truth.” She retrieved her phone from the couch and showed him the text. He stood still in place, not used to seeing his mommy cry. He was shocked at what he saw, he didn’t like how she must have felt. His eyes rested on a small puddle on the floor and Dylan wondered how many tears his mother had cried today. His anger faded, partially replaced by mixed emotions that he couldn’t name. He was mad, upset, sad, disappointed, regretful, hopeful… That’s all he could name, but that wasn’t all. What if his mom was right? Oliver acted just as if she was right, but what about his dad then? Why did he lie? “You’ll listen to Mr. Queen, right?” Felicity asked, not really waiting for an answer. She looked at Oliver, communicating with him without words. He understood her silent plea and nodded his head. “Go baby boy, please be polite,” she said and kissed his forehead. He instinctively pushed her away, still not knowing how exactly he felt about his mom.

“I’m not a baby,” muttered Dylan angrily, but Felicity pretended not to hear it.

“You’ll be okay?” asked Oliver, his voice full of concern. He didn’t want to leave her, he wanted to take her out and make sure she was having fun, but he saw how tired she was so he let it go.

“Yes,“ she muttered. “Just go, I’ll be fine,” she lied and faked a smile.

She hated herself for crying in front of her son, for not handling this situation at all well, but she was too tired of his behaviour. Felicity turned around and landed face first on the couch listening to their footsteps on the staircase. She thought more tears were going to fall, but she’d probably cried all of them already. Her breaths were heavy, face and hands wet, hair all over her face. She turned a little on the sofa and immediately fell into a not so peaceful sleep. She kept waking up covered in sweat, sometimes with her cheeks wet from tears, always choking on the air that couldn’t make it into her lungs, but she felt too tired to get up so she fell back to sleep again and again. She didn’t remember her dreams, maybe she hadn’t even dreamed, it was possible that it was a side effect of all the stress she’d been living under the past months. She had to talk to Dylan. She had to do it as soon as possible, but she was afraid he wouldn’t understand. Oliver texted her a few times, saying that he and Dylan were having fun, asking how she was feeling. The last message informed her that they were on their way back home. Felicity didn’t know how long she was sitting on the couch, but she fully came to her senses the second the doorbell rang. She walked up to the door coughing, still not having much air to breathe with.

“Hey,” she gasped, opening the door. Oliver smiled to her, but in his eyes she could see he was worried.

“Hi,” he answered entering her apartment, Dylan right behind him. He was holding a brand new volleyball.

“Where’d the ball come from?” Felicity asked Dylan trying to find out if he was still mad or not. She knew Oliver had talked to him, but her son was just as stubborn as she was. He looked at her and walked past her, hiding in the bathroom for the second time today.

“I’m sorry,” whispered Oliver. “I talked to him, I hoped he’s changed his mind about you…”

“Don’t worry,” she said, seeing his broken expression. “Thank you for today.”

“You still look tired, haven’t you slept when we were gone?” wondered Oliver.

“I kept having panic attacks of some sort, I think,” confessed Felicity. Oliver’s eyebrows furrowed in worry and he opened his mouth to say something, but she didn’t let him. “So, maybe you can tell me, where were you two today?”

“In the cinema at first,” responded Oliver, not liking how Felicity changed the topic of their conversation. “Then we played volleyball…”

“Where did Dylan get this ball from?”

“Oh, we bought it, consider it a late birthday present,” he didn’t stop talking, worried she may say something about his money again. “And then we went to Big Belly Burger, after that an ice cream, then Dylan was high on sugar so we went to this funny place where you can jump on trampolines that are everywhere, and then we ended up in a water park.” Felicity nodded, her arms crossed on her chest.

“You didn’t take any of his swimming things,” she said, still breathing heavily for some reason.

“We bought everything there, if Dylan shows you his new towel with sharks, please say that it’s crazy scary…” It was clear that Oliver had had fun with Felicity’s son, but she didn’t let him finish whatever he wanted to say.

“But he has all of those things at home,“ she said defensively. “Well, he has a Nemo towel, but a towel is a towel, it serves the same purpose no matter what is printed on it…and I bought him new swimming trunks for the camp, he could have taken them, he has everything at home, you can’t buy him things!”

“Please, calm down,” whispered Oliver and took her face in his hands. “I know, I know he has it all, the water park is on the other side of the city, and we were right next to it, coming back here would have taken too much time, that’s all,” he explained. “I know he has everything that he needs, and more.” He pulled her towards himself and kissed her forehead. She visibly relaxed, so did Oliver.

“Sorry,” she said and put her arms around his neck, smiling softly. “I know you mean well.”

“I do,” he admitted and leaned to kiss her lips, gently and sweetly.

“Actually I have a question about this camp,” started Felicity, not letting go of him. “You’re collecting everyone’s money until Friday, right?” Oliver nodded. “Do you have to pay the company right after that?”

“No, there’s always someone who forgets, so I’ll pay a week after that I think, why?”

“Uh, there’s a thing… Dylan’s class has a trip to the biggest zoo in the USA and he really wanted to go. I thought…why not, I earn a lot of money in Verdant, so I agreed and then I realised that I have to pay for it until the end of next week, just like for the camp. I thought that maybe you could make a small exception and let me give you the money a little later?” Oliver turned bright red. He didn’t know how to tell her this. Now, after seeing her reaction to Dylan’s new shark towel he was even more scared. “Just a little later, I get my money every Wednesday…”

“Felicity…”

“I’m not trying to use you in any way, I promise,“ she added quickly. Now she blushed and made an awkward step back. “You know, forget it, I’ll ask Caitlin, I’ll ask my mom and you’ll have the money on Friday, okay?”

“Felicity, it’s not that,” he assured her. Seeing how bad she felt about asking made him hate himself. “It’s just that the camp is already paid for.” Felicity laughed.

“I know I’m being crazy lately,” she said with a smile. “There’s no way I could have paid for the camp though, I haven’t even paid for electricity yet” she confessed.

“I’m not saying you paid for it,” whispered Oliver hesitantly, watching her reaction.

“What?” She was still smiling, but there was something else in her expression as well, something he couldn’t place. He tucked her hair behind her ear and gently put a hand on her arm, not really knowing what to do. “What did you do?”

“Nothing, I’m just saying you don’t have to worry about the camp anymore…”

“You paid for Dylan’s camp?!” Felicity shrugged and Oliver’s palm fell from her shoulder.

“Felicity…” Oliver wanted to defend himself, but she never gave him a chance.

“You paid for his camp! I can’t believe it, after everything I said, everything we talked about, you do this?” Oliver had never seen Felicity this angry. He knew it was a bad idea, he knew it from the beginning, it was all John’s fault, but Felicity didn’t let him say it. “Why do you still treat me like, like I’m a loser? Like I can’t do anything on my own! I’m not someone who controls everything, I’m well aware of that, but you can’t do things like this, no one asked you to do it!”

“Please, let me…”

“Let you what? Take over my life? You have a problem, Oliver, a huge one! One day you will be left with nothing after you give all of your fortune to random poor girls that don’t need your help!” She had no idea what had gotten into her, the last time she’d been this angry was at the age of 18, when she cut the photo of her classmates with a kitchen knife. That was after the first time she’d heard them saying she was a loser that got knocked up and now won’t be able to do anything with her life. “You have no right to treat me like this!”

“Oh, but you have a right to treat me like I’m your sidekick?” Now Oliver was mad. This wasn’t even his money, and in genaral he didn’t approve of this idea, but she drove him crazy. “You don’t want my money, you don’t me to help you, but when you feel bad I’m the first one you call, like I always have to have time for your family problems!” yelled Oliver and Felicity just stood in place, her mouth opened, pure shock written on her face. “I just tried to help,” said Oliver quietly and took a few steps back.

“Then don’t,” she asked. “Not like this.” She watched as Oliver started slowly walking up to the door. She felt the dull ache in her chest and hot tears in her eyes. Her two beloved men were hurt today, both because of her and she knew she would never forgive herself for doing this, but it was too late now. The door shut after Oliver and Dylan came out from the bathroom, dressed in his pajamas. He sighed dramatically and lean on the doorframe.

“You know mom, it’s outstanding how easily you annoy people,” he said and Felicity silently agreed with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU FOR READING!!! Please leave a comment, they make my day :) ~missfsmoak


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I'm sorry for not updating for such a long time, but school started and I didn't have time for writing :( Okay so I know this chapter is short, but I hope you'll like it. Thank you for kudos and comments and bookmarks, thank you for your lovely messages on tumblr, I love hearing from you guys! Okay, I'm not going to make it much longer, enjoy the chapter (please let me know what you think, leave some feedback :)) This chapter was edited by the awesome youfixedmybrokenwings (tumblr - check out her blog please :))   
> MY TUMBLR USERNAME IS THE SAME AS HERE ~missafairy :)

“Mom! Mom, you have to get up now,“ Felicity heard her son’s voice and felt someone poking her arm. “Mom, school starts soon,” said Dylan and kept trying to wake his mom up.

“What?” asked Felicity sleepily. A cough tickled her throat, forcing her to sit up quickly. “What about the alarm?”

“It rang some time ago,” said Dylan and looked at his mom with caution. She had never slept through an alarm. He had, of course, sometimes Felicity couldn’t drag him out of the bed in the morning. This day was different though. “Uncle John called, he said you have to call him as soon as possible.” Dylan handed his mother her phone and sat on the bed beside her. He thought about what Mr. Queen had told him yesterday and he felt bad for being mad at his mom, but he didn’t fully believe that it wasn’t her fault. Why would his dad cancel the meetings? He had a job, that’s right, but so did mom and Mr. Queen and they always found time for him. He couldn’t help but think his mum didn’t want them to meet.

“Did Uncle John say what the matter was?” asked Felicity and crawled out of bed. The heavy feeling in her chest didn’t let go, even for a minute. Diggle probably wanted to talk about Oliver, being best friends with him he probably knew about everything already.

“No, just that you have to call him,” Dylan sighed.

“Okay, I’ll do that later,” decided Felicity, looking in the mirror. She tied her hair up in a messy bun and put her sneakers on. Fortunately she’d fallen asleep in her sweatpants instead of pajamas because she’d had no time to get changed. “Did you eat?”

“A sandwich with peanut butter, chocolate spread, jelly and cereal,” explained the boy and Felicity furrowed her brows. She didn’t know where he got the idea of putting cereal on bread.

“Um…all of that in one sandwich?” she asked.

“Yeah, I also made a lunchbox so I won’t be hungry, don’t worry… Now we have to go!” Dylan took his backpack and a sports bag with clothes for the extra classes with Oliver.

“Right, come on, let’s go, you can’t be late,” agreed Felicity, who was afraid to ask what Dylan had put in his lunchbox. “Oh, you don’t go to the schoolcare today, so leave the bag…”

“What? Just because you fought with Mr. Queen yesterday doesn’t mean I can’t go!” opposed Dylan, who loved Mr. Queen and his after school classes. “He still likes me!” said Dylan, more to convince himself than his mother.

“No, no, honey, you’ll go there tomorrow, just not today, okay?” Felicity didn’t want to see Oliver today, that was true. She was embarrassed and felt bad for yelling at him, after all, all he’d tried to do was to help her. Though she hated that he didn’t believe her when she’d said she didn’t want help. Dylan was looking at her hesitantly.

“You promise?” he asked, still holding his bag.

“I promise, now let’s go, okay?” She watched as her son dropped the bag on the floor and walked down the stairs. She knew he was mad at her for fighting with Oliver, who was her child’s only role model. She knew she’d overreacted a little and she regretted shouting at her boyfriend, but she couldn’t turn back time. Felicity followed her son, too tired to walk beside him. The pace he set was way too fast for her taste.

Felicity led Dylan almost to the entrance and smiled when he let her kiss his cheek when he made sure no one was looking. Felicity sighed as she watched him walk into the building.

xxx

Felicity picked Dylan up from school and even managed to talk to him about his day. It wasn’t easy because her son couldn’t decide if he was angry at her or not. Dylan had thought a lot about the situation at school, but it hadn’t really led him to any conclusions. He still didn’t know what his dad thought about it. And he had to find out. Asking his mother was out of the question, because he still didn’t fully trust her in that matter. Asking Mr. Queen could be a good idea, but after Oliver’s fight with Felicity Dylan wasn’t sure if Mr. Queen liked him… A thought appeared in the boy’s head as a perfect solution. He knew it wasn’t exactly a good way, but he had to try.

Felicity wasn’t suspecting anything, busy with making dinner. Her son was in the bathroom, washing his hands. Or so Felicity thought.

“Dylan, Dylan come here!” she called to her son and coughed again. “Food is ready!” Dylan didn’t make a sound over the running water. “Dylan, I bought ice cream for after dinner,” Felicity tried to persuade him. Finally she decided to invade his privacy and went to the bathroom. “Dylan if you won’t open the door I’m going to do it myself,” she warned her son, and when she didn’t hear any response she pushed it open. The bathroom was empty. Water still running, lights on, but Dylan wasn’t there. Felicity’s heart started pounding, a wave of heat rushed through her, stopping somewhere in her chest making her feel like the air was cut off.

“Dylan?” she whispered and ran back to the kitchen, barely remembering to shut off the water. In the small apartment it was impossible for Dylan to hide, the closets were not big enough. Despite knowing that Dylan wasn’t hiding anywhere Felicity ran around her small apartment again and again, checking ridiculous places like under the table and behind the fridge.

“Dylan!” she yelled when she could finally start breathing again and ran down the stairs to the parking lot. She ran to the bus stop, her panda flats catching on the holes of a broken sidewalk. She was running as fast as she could, she saw the bus station still quite far from her and a child dressed in jeans and blue hoodie, just like her son.

“Dylan!” she shouted, but the boy quickly hopped onto the bus. The doors closed and the bus left, leaving Felicity breathless on the sidewalk. She waved for the bus helplessly and felt hot tears in her eyes. Her son had just run away. What was she supposed to do?

“My phone,” she gasped. She searched her pockets, but her phone must have been left in the apartment. She had to call…someone, anyone, maybe even the police, it was her son missing after all! She quickly walked back and searched everywhere for her phone or wallet. She knew she hadn’t been robbed even though she didn’t lock the door. Dylan had taken her mobile and her wallet. Felicity sat on the edge of the sofa and hid her face in her hands, wondering where her son was now. The bus could have taken him anywhere. It drove straight throught the city, stopped near Dylan’s school, train station, shopping centre, cinema and drove even further - to the airport. Felicity stood up and walked up to the door, her legs shaking. She went to the only place she could think of - the after school care. She hurried to Dylan’s school and to her disappointment she saw Sara Lance, the teacher Oliver worked with. Dylan wasn’t there. Oliver had a day off today but Felicity didn’t have a choice. She had to go talk to him. She knew he would help her, no matter what. They might have fought yesterday, but she trusted him enough to know he wouldn’t let her down, and that’s how she would get her chance to apologise. Felicity hopped on the first bus she saw and then walked for a bit towards Oliver’s apartment. It was situated in a beautiful area of the newest skyscrapers in town. Felicity quickly ran through the security gates, thankful that someone had left them open. Then she jumped into the elevator and, desperately catching her breath, waited while it took her upstairs. Felicity stood in front of the door, her finger on the doorbell for a few moments before urgency for her son overcame her fear and she pressed the button. She took a few calming breaths, hating the sound of her furiously beating heart in her ears. Through the tears she had in her eyes she saw a pretty, tall brunette standing by the door. That must have been Thea, Oliver’s sister.

“I need to talk to Oliver,” squealed Felicity, forgetting about her manners. “Is he home? I really need to talk to him! Or maybe I can use your phone?” Thea’s eyes grew bigger and bigger.

“Excause me, who are you?” she asked, confusion evident in her voice.

“Felicity. Smoak,” said Felicity and leaned on the doorframe. “Please don’t close the door, Oliver knows me, I know he’s mad at me, but I need him, I mean his help, I really need his help and…”

“It’s okay, Felicity, come in…” said Thea. She imagined the first meeting with her future sister-in-law differently, but she stepped away and let the crying girl enter the apartment.

“Felicity?” Suddenly Oliver appeared behind his sister and Felicity could see worry in his eyes. “What happened?” he asked and pulled Felicity inside.

“Dylan,” she coughed. “Dylan…he ran away and I don’t know what to do…” sobbed Felicity and Oliver quickly wrapped his strong arms around her. Felicity’s hands gripped his shirt, folding it in her palms.

“Shh, it’s going to be okay, we’re going to find him,” said Oliver firmly.

“Can you call John? Maybe he’s with Andy?” asked Felicity.

“John would have called you.”

“Dylan took my phone,” cried Felicity. “And he ran, I went to school care, but he wasn’t there!”

“I’ll call John,” said Thea and quickly dialled the Diggles’ number.

“Should I call the police?” asked Felicity with a broken voice.

“Maybe we should wait with that? He’s been gone for no longer than 24 hours, right?” noticed Oliver.

“Guys, John says he hasn’t seen Dylan, Andy and Sara seem to know nothing,” announced Thea and looked at Oliver, silently asking what to do next.

“Oh no, no, no,” Felicity whispered and Oliver tightened his hold on her. “Can you please help me look…”

“Yes, we’re going to go looking for him right now,” Oliver assured her and kissed Felicity’s forehead, which was way too warm for his liking… “Thea, you’re going to stay in Felicity’s apartment in case Dylan comes back,” he said and his sister nodded. “And we…are going to look for him,” he took Felicity’s hand and led her out of his apartment towards one of his cars.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading <3 Please don't be mean because lately I noticed some of you... were mean. Bye! ~missafairy


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone :) Thank you for your response to the last chapter :)) Please read the notes at the end because they kind of explain... everything xD. Thank you for kudos and bookmarks, you're the best! This chapter was edited by my awesome beta youfixedmybrokenwings (check out her tumblr :)) Enjoy :)

“Mom? Hi, it’s Felicity,” she coughed into Oliver’s phone. “I was just…wondering if maybe Dylan called you today? No, no, no…well…yes, he ran away, I’m looking for him with Oliver right now, we’re going to check the… I’ll call you back when I find him,” said Felicity and ended the call. “I can’t believe I’m so stupid!” said Felicity out loud suddenly. “I know where he is!” she yelled. “Go to the train station! Turn! Left, now…”

“He’s at the train station?” asked Oliver, trying not to look at his girlfriend. He hated seeing her like this. He was mad at her last night, but he knew why she was angry at him.

“Yes, he is! He’s going to Central City to visit Cooper,” said Felicity and dialled her own number for the fiftieth time today in the hope her son would finally pick up. “Damn, answer the phone!” shouted Felicity hopelessly.

“Still nothing?”

“Nothing.”

“Don’t worry, we’re almost there,” assured Oliver and his heart hurt once again when he heard her sigh sadly.

“I’ll quickly run to the station, maybe I’ll catch the train,” gasped Felicity and coughed. Oliver looked at her with concern, but he knew better than to start a conversation now. As soon as he stopped the car Felicity jumped out of it, running straight to the stairs that led to the platform. He didn’t bother buying a parking ticket but quickly followed Felicity. When they both managed to get to the right platform they saw the train far, far away, and then it just disappeared leaving Oliver and Felicity alone on the platform. Oliver heard his girlfriend sigh heavily, desperately trying to catch her breath.

“The next train leaves in…4 hours,” said Oliver, checking the timetable, and Felicity whined. “We’ll be there in 2 hours by car…”

“Oliver, I don’t even know if he was on that train, what if I just made it up? I have no idea what’s going on in his head, I’m just guessing, but he could be anywhere!” Felicity started to panic, Oliver could hear her voice getting higher with each word. He couldn’t imagine how she felt right now, but he wanted to make sure she would feel better soon.

“Are you looking for a small guy in a hoodie?” asked a short, old man that Felicity had just noticed. He was dressed in a hi-vis vest and carried a huge garbage can with him. “A blue hoodie?” he repeated and Felicity nodded frantically.

“Yeah, yes, have you seen him?” she asked and the man nodded his head.

“Yeah I knew he lied about being with his parents… He was looking for this platform, a train to Central City has just left from here. I’m sure he was there, he quickly got in saying his parents were waiting for him inside,” explained the older train station worker.

“Thank you,” said Oliver and squeezed Felicity’s hand.

“Thank you, sir,” she said and then Oliver pulled her towards the exit. A moment later they both were sitting in the car, driving through the Starling City main street.

“Where…where’s your phone?” asked Felicity, looking around. “I wanna call Cooper.”

“Here…” Oliver gave her his mobile without taking his eyes off the road. “Do you remember the number?”

“Huh… actually I had him on speed dial because I was calling him ten times per day, every single day… six, eight, one, one… Hello? It’s Felicity, can I speak with Cooper? It’s very important… Oh… I’m sorry, wrong number. Then it’s eight, six, one, one…”

“Easy, Felicity, it’s going to be fine,” he tried to calm her down.

“Cooper? It’s Felicity, don’t hang up, it’s important! Dylan is…how do you know that? Oh… Yeah, I’m on my way…please, you have to wait for him there so he doesn’t get lost on the station and then call me when you meet him and don’t leave the station, as I said I’m on my way to pick him up. No you can’t. You can’t do that. Because I say so. You never wanted to be his father so you’re not his father, you have 2 hours to make up your mind whether you want a son or not. I’m done with your shit. Just do what I said, keep texting him and keep me updated. And don’t tell him I’m coming for him! Understood? Great.” Felicity angrily ended the call and looked at Oliver, clearly terrified. “Uh, did I sound bitchy enough?” she asked and Oliver chuckled.

“Yeah, bitchy enough,” he admitted. “So I guess Dylan is okay?”

“He’s safe, on a ‘comfy train’. He is sending messages to Cooper because he’s bored and I didn’t pay for mobile internet this month so…” Felicity interrupted and bit her lip. The worry was gone now, that she knew about Dylan’s well-being. She realised that she needed to take matters in her own hands and that being firm with Cooper was the first step to getting her son back. She looked at Oliver and coughed a few times, earning herself a concerned gaze. The guilt of last night’s events hit her hard again. Oliver was here with her, after a fight when she’d told him a few of her worst thoughts. Her Oliver was with her. Her Oliver was looking with her for her child, he was there for her and he would always be there for her. She only had to make it right again. The whole drive to Central City was very quiet, Felicity trying to make up her mind on what to say. It seemed an age before she finally broke the silence. “Oliver?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry for what happened yesterday,” said Felicity. “I feel very bad for what I said to you. I’ve been thinking about it and I know all you tried to do was to help,” she sighed, not knowing what else to say. Nothing she could think of seemed like an apology that would make things better.

“Felicity, it’s fine, you’re not the one to blame. I’m sorry, I knew you would never want that and I shouldn’t have agreed, but John made a good point…”

“John?” Felicity looked up at him, clearly confused. “Uh, speaking of John he called me a few times this morning, but I forgot to call him back.”

“So you haven’t talked to him?” asked Oliver.

“No? I mean no. Should I have?” Felicity still didn’t know what was going on.

“It’s just that I talked to him and he wanted to make things better…”

“Well, now I’d like to make things better,” said Felicity firmly. “I’ll start with giving you all the money back…not this week though…”

“It’s not my money.”

“What?”

“John, he paid for Dylan’s camp and I let him,” confessed Oliver.

“Wait, you’re saying it was all John’s idea?” Felicity’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“Yes, he saw how you’re struggling and he wanted to help. He convinced me to take the money, for some reason he thought you wouldn’t be mad at me,” explained Oliver. “I knew you would be, but I couldn’t look at how tired you are every day, how you work your hands off every day, I just couldn’t… I care too much for you.”

“I’m sorry,” whispered Felicity. She didn’t know what else to say, Oliver was right, she cared about him too. She knew it would hurt her just as much as it hurt him. “What if we forget about the whole situation? You never give me money or never let anyone give me money and I’ll take care of myself?” she suggested.

“I could do that. You’d start with going to the doctor, I don’t like your coughing.”

“No one likes coughing, Oliver,” laughed Felicity and started coughing again, her arms wrapped around her chest. “Fine, I’ll go,” she gasped when the fit subsided.

“You better do or I’ll drag you there,” he said and stopped his car in the parking lot in front of the Central City train station. “Come on,” he said and got out of the car. Felicity followed him, but then she froze.

“Oliver?”

“What is it?”

“I’m scared,” she confessed and Oliver took her free hand. “I know he didn’t want Dylan before, but what if he wants him now and he’ll take him away from me?” Felicity had tears in her eyes; Oliver flinched when he heard her struggling to breathe properly.

“It’s all going to be fine,” he assured her, but he didn’t really know what to expect of Cooper. That man was a walking mystery, an annoying one. “We’ll find out what he wants, very soon. And it’s all going to be okay, all right?”

“Right… It will all be okay,” Felicity let the hot tears fall down her cheeks. “I know it will be all good and… Oliver? I love you,” she whispered and prayed for Oliver to tell her that he loved her back. She closed her eyes for a minute, too afraid to look at his expression, but when she did she felt Oliver’s arms around her, his lips on her lips.

“I love you too,” he said firmly and she knew that he was telling the truth. “I love you and I always will, we’re a team now and we’re going to get through this together, no matter what Cooper says, okay?” Felicity nodded. He wiped the tears off her face and squeezed her hand, leading her towards the station.

xxx

Meanwhile on the train station in Central City, Dylan hopped out of the train, immediately colliding with his father’s chest.

“Hi Dad!” yelled Dylan with a huge grin and hugged Cooper with all the strength he had in his tiny body.

“Hey…um, hi Dylan,” said Cooper and started walking along the platform with his son by his side. “How was the journey?”

“Boring, Mom doesn’t have the mobile internet anymore,” whined the boy.

“Aren’t you too young to travel on your own?” asked Cooper and led Dylan to one of the fast food restaurants.

“No, you said yourself, I’m seven so I’m old enough to do things!”

“Yeah…” sighed Cooper, clearly uncomfortable. ‘he’s fine, we’re waiting in big b. Burger. Let me say goodbye,’ he texted Felicity and looked at his son, not really knowing what to say.

“I’m not hungry, we can go home now,” said Dylan, but sat at the table anyway.

“Oh… I’m kind of hungry so maybe we’ll eat here?”

“Okay, I want Big Belly Burger Special with fries and orange juice,” said Dylan and jumped on his chair. Cooper smiled involuntarily.

“Your mom used to order that when we were in high school,” he said and looked away.

“Really? She never orders it, she has Burger Grande with fries and soda,” laughed Dylan, not believing his dad that mom could have ordered something other than her usual. “Dad, how do I mute this phone?” asked Dylan and pulled Felicity’s phone out of his pocket. “Mr. Queen keeps calling, I don’t know why, she yelled at him yesterday…”

“Mr. Queen? He and Mom are still friends?” wondered Cooper and quickly muted the phone. Dylan had no idea about technology, that made him very different from his parents. Cooper had no doubts though. He knew Dylan was his son, he knew Felicity would never cheat on him and he knew when exactly he’d got her pregnant. Now, after all these years he regretted his harsh words that made her drop out of school, he regretted the bullying, the awful rumours he was spreading about her. He looked at Dylan and he felt like he was looking in the mirror. His whole face looked like his own, except for his eyes. Those for sure were Felicity’s. So was the babbling. He couldn’t spend time with Dylan, he simply couldn’t do that because it reminded him of the idiot he was. He tried to make it better since their first real meeting, but quickly it just got too much. So he started cancelling the meetings, he kept working until late hours and right now, sitting with the tiny boy who went through a great deal of effort to get to him, he realised what he had to do. He just needed to let him go and start over. Without him and without Felicity. He just hoped that one day they both would forgive him.

“Yeah, Mr. Oliver Queen tried to help her and she got really mad and now he keeps calling, I wonder why. I’m not sure if they still are friends…”

“I’m sure they are, don’t worry,” said Cooper, knowing that Oliver was with Felicity right now, worried about Dylan just as much as she was. “You like him, right?”

“Yes, he’s awesome!” said Dylan and a huge smile appeared on his face. “He plays games with me and he got Mommy a huge flower bouquet and I had to go and give it to her, she was so happy! We called it a flower mission! And he bought me a cool towel, it’s super scary with a shark on it! Oh and he loves watching movies with me and Mommy…” Dylan kept talking and Cooper saw Felicity walking slowly towards them, the famous Oliver by her side.

“Dylan, there’s something you need to know,” said Cooper and reached for his son’s hand. “I don’t want you to get upset about it, I really don’t want that, but… Look, you…” Cooper stuttered and looked at Felicity who was sitting on a bench, watching them.

“What is it Dad?”

“You know how children live with their daddies? Or how they spend some days with them, hang out, have fun?” Cooper’s son nodded. “I didn’t hang out with you too much, I was cancelling our meetings…”

“You were at work, right?” asked Dylan and Cooper’s heart fell apart.

“Not really. You are a wonderful boy, Dylan. You’re smart, you’re a handsome little man, you’re great at sports and you’re very kind… so it’s not about you!” said Cooper and his voice wavered. He quickly wiped a single tear that started falling down his cheek.

“Dad? What is it?”

“I don’t know how to be your dad,” whispered Cooper and squeezed Dylan’s hand. “I don’t know… I can’t be the dad that you deserve. Look there.” He pointed out Felicity and Oliver, hugging each other in support. “Oliver, he, he likes you a lot. He’s not your father, but sure he acts like a father should.”

“You called Mom?!”

“Shh, don’t shout Dylan. Yes, I called your mom because you can’t escape like that, she had to know where you are.”

“No, no, no!” Dylan got up and made to run away, but Cooper quickly caught him.

“Listen to me. I have to go. I’m moving out, far away. You’re going to forget about me, it’ll be easy around Oliver, you’ll see,” said Cooper and led Dylan to Felicity and Oliver.

“Dad, you can’t! You can’t do that!” Dylan started shouting, tears were falling down his face like crazy. Oliver caught him and Felicity quickly hugged her son who was still trying to escape.

“It’s okay, it’s going to be okay,” repeated Cooper. “Be good for Mommy, she loves you. And Oliver will take care of you, you’ll see, he’s going to take you to the cinema and to the park and he’s going to buy you thousands of shark towels…”

“No!” screamed Dylan while both Cooper and Oliver carried him out of the station. When they pushed him into Oliver’s car and buckled him up he finally seemed to calm down.

“It’s going to be fine, you have a loving family, you don’t need me,” Cooper wiped the tears from Dylan’s face. “Be the awesome boy I had a chance to meet,” he said and closed the car door. He turned around and saw Felicity, crying because of him again, hopefully for the last time. “I’m sorry,” whispered Cooper. “For everything,” he added. “I’m moving out to Ireland, I’m sorry I hurt you, Felicity. I’m sorry, I hope you’ll be happy,” he said and started walking away. No one stopped him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I'm sorry for not punching Cooper in the face. And I'm very sorry that the Olicity moment was so brief. Unfortunately I think that;s how life is, with all the craziness and the situation with Dylan I just figured they didn't have the time for anything... I hope you'll forgive me... Thank you for reading ~missafairy


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!!!! I’m both sad and excited to tell you that this is THE LAST chapter of this fanfic!!! It’s been quite a long journey and I truly thank you for being with me :) I am glad you liked this fanfic and I was jumping in joy while reading every comment and seeing every like or bookmark. Thank you so much!!! I hope you will like the ending and I hope you will come here once more to read an EPILOGUE!!! I’m so very sorry if I’m misspelling things :( I’m in hurry and I can’t check ever word in a dictionary so... please forgive me. Thank you once again! I hope you will like this chapter :)
> 
> Special ‘THANK YOU’ goes to @youfixedmybrokenwings for editing this story!!! Please check out her blog if you have time, she’s an awesome person with a lots of patience and a great heart. THANK YOU MY DEAR FOR EDITING MY FANFIC <3 You’re an awesome beta and a wonderful friend :)))

Dylan cried himself to sleep that night. He didn’t say a word to Felicity, he didn’t even look at her once. He did yell in the car, but Mr. Queen told him to apologise. He didn’t, just sat in silence all ride long. And yes, he cried a lot not only in the car, but later in the apartment and even later during the night until he finally fell asleep exhausted, next to an equally exhausted Felicity. She tried hugging him or kissing him goodnight, but he just turned over. Oliver offered to stay, but Felicity knew it was pointless. Dylan wasn’t listening to any explanations. When the alarm clock rang Dylan wasn’t any less angry with his mother. He quickly got up and stared at her for a while. She wasn’t getting up. Again. Just stirred in the bed, coughing.

“Get up!” yelled Dylan and Felicity jumped awake, her arms on her chest, breath loud and heavy.

“What?” she asked, trying to focus her gaze on her son. “Is it morning already?”

“Yeah it is, I’ll be late because you slept in again,” he said.

“Hey, we made it on time yesterday,” she said with a forced smile and crawled out of the bed, straight to the cabinet where she held medications.

“Huh sure, you only didn’t let me stay with dad,” said the boy angrily and went to the bathroom, shutting the door loudly behind him. Felicity sighed and swallowed a few aspirin, hoping they would help with the terrible headache and pain in her chest. She slowly walked up to the door of the bathroom.

“It’s not my fault, Dylan,” she said. “I mean… not in the way you think. I know you loved dad and I know how much you liked spending time with him, but it was his decision, not mine!”

Felicity didn’t really know what else to say. She didn’t want to be the one blaming everything on Dylan’s beloved Cooper, but that was the truth. She’d given him a choice. Sure, she’d hoped he would walk away because she could imagine that sharing custody with him would be a nightmare, but she really did let him choose. In a way it hurt her that he didn’t choose his son. Besides the pain…everywhere, she really didn’t know what she felt.

“Dad wouldn’t have left me!” she heard Dylan cry out and her heart broke once again. She quietly opened the door and saw her son sitting on the rug in the corner, his tiny arms wrapped around his trembling body. She slowly sat beside him, hoping he wouldn’t run away.

“You know… I can’t make you believe me,” she whispered. “What I can do is… I can only tell you that I love you Dylan, I love you like only a mother can love her child. I never understood this when Granny Donna tried to explain it to me, but I understand it now I’m your mom… Anyway, as a mom I always want what’s best for you, what makes you happy. It hurts me seeing you like this. I want to cry every time you cry, and Dylan, what I saw yesterday at the train station, I heard you scream for dad and I didn’t know what to do. He made a choice. He did what he thought was right. When I was a little girl I didn’t understand it either. I thought I was broken. I thought there was something wrong with me that made my dad leave. Now it’s different. I met aunt Cait, uncle Ronnie, uncle John, aunt Lyla… I met Oliver and they made me realise that I’m not broken. My dad just didn’t…I don’t know…but I know that he wasn’t worth crying over. I understand what you feel, Dylan. I know it’s terrible. So please trust me when I’m saying that I didn’t want you to go through that. Please forgive me baby,” she cried and prayed for Dylan to say something.

“I don’t know mom,” he said. “I don’t know!”

“It’s okay, it’s going to be fine,” she said and hugged him. “It’s going to be better…”

“It’s not!” he shouted and ran out of the bathroom.

xxx

Dylan had been sitting in the gym refusing to talk to anyone. His classmates kept asking him what was wrong, but he just asked them to go away and leave him alone. The hours passed slowly, children gradually leaving the gym to go home until there were only a few kids left. Dylan was watching Mr. Queen, wondering what to do with this guy. After all he’d helped mom with taking him away from dad… Something in Dylan’s head told him that he could still trust Oliver and the child didn’t know what to do. What had his dad said? That Oliver is what a dad should be like? Despite all of the anger Dylan could imagine that. Looking at Andy’s whole and happy family he had a picture in his head, a dream he was afraid would never come true. Andy’s parents were living together in one house, sleeping in one room, they hardly ever argued, they kissed quite often… It was clear to the boy that they loved each other. Mom and dad never lived together though and they fought all the time! Why was life so unfair sometimes? And why wasn’t mom picking him up? It had to be past 4 p.m. Dylan looked at Oliver who was restlessly pacing along the windows. Something was not right. Dylan got up and slowly walked to his teacher. He was certain Oliver was mad at him, but he was sure to know where mom was. They were friends after all.

“Mr. Queen?” asked Dylan quietly. “What time is it?”

“Past five,” answered Oliver and looked out of the window again. “Didn’t mom say she would pick you up before going to the club?”

“Yeah, she said after cleaning at that old people’s house she would take me to the movies,” responded Dylan and impatiently looked out of the window. His mom was late sometimes, but never this long! “Then to the other job!”

“That’s what she told me too,” sighed Oliver and called her again. Still no response.

“Maybe she’s sleeping,” suggested Dylan.

“Sleeping?” Oliver furrowed his brows in confusion.

“Yeah, you know she sleeps all the time, makes me late for school.”

“She’s very tired, Dylan, she needs her sleep,” said Oliver, a bit too harshly. He knew that the boy was stressed, didn’t know how to handle the whole situation and that his behaviour wasn’t exactly his fault, but still Felicity didn’t deserve to be treated like this. She was falling asleep on her feet because she wanted her little boy to have everything. “Now, if you don’t want to play, do your homework. I’ll call her again, okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” said Dylan hesitantly and walked away.

Not long after that Dylan was the only child left in the after school care. He hadn’t moved from his safe spot in the corner, crying silently. Oliver walked up to him and sat on the floor beside the boy.

“She’s not answering,” said Oliver and waited for Dylan’s reaction. He could see that the boy was crying and his heart was aching for him. “Do you remember aunt Cait’s phone number? Maybe she knows something?”

“I don’t remember,” sobbed Dylan and moved closer to Oliver.

“Shh, it’s okay.” Oliver also moved closer trying to comfort Dylan somehow. “I’m worried too, but I’m sure she’ll call us soon,” said Oliver, not really knowing what to do. He felt like he should wait until she picked Dylan up, babbling all the while about what had happened to her and made her late, but he knew something had to be wrong and it was driving him crazy. “Maybe you want to go to a restaurant? You’ll eat something, I’m sure you’re hungry, lunch was a long time ago.”

“I don’t wanna eat,” whispered Felicity’s son.

“Maybe I’ll drive you to my apartment?” suggested Oliver. “You’ll stay with my sister Thea, you met her yesterday, she’s pretty cool. And I will look for your mom?”

“No, please!” whined Dylan and Oliver wasn’t going to ask the worried boy to stay at a foreign place with a stranger if he didn’t want to.

“Okay, it’s okay, we’ll wait here a bit longer,” he promised.

Dylan laid his head on Oliver’s arm and closed his eyes. He was tired of the tears, the sobs, but he knew he wouldn’t sleep because too many thoughts were stuck in his head. When his father was leaving him yesterday he’d said that with Oliver it would be easy to forget him. He kept saying it, over and over, that Oliver was what a father should be like and Dylan could still hear it all the time, the loud voice echoing in his mind.

“You like my mom, right?” he asked finally and Oliver raised his head, shock evident on his face.

“Yes, I do…” he said hesitantly. “Does it bother you?”

“I don’t know. Before dad left…”

“I had nothing to do with that,” said Oliver quickly. “I promise, it’s not my fault that your dad left. And it’s not your mom’s fault either! Come on, you’re a big boy, you should know that. Cooper was cancelling meetings, he was letting you down… I know your mom didn’t want to say a bad word about him, but he was saying bad words about her, you told me that, remember? I’m sorry Dylan, but he could have changed. He didn’t want to. I know it hurts,” said Oliver. “Believe me, I know it hurts when people we love leave us. You just have to know that you are special.” Oliver’s voice trembled. “And that it wasn’t your fault either.”

“It’s so unfair! Doesn’t he love me?!” yelled Dylan, crying again.

“I don’t know,” said Oliver honestly. “But there are lots of people who love you. Mom, Granny, your aunts and uncles… I love you. You and your mom both…”

“You love me and mom?” asked Dylan with a hint of disbelief in his voice. Was his father right? Was Oliver what a dad should be?

“Of course!” Oliver assured him. “Why wouldn’t I? You’re an amazing, smart child and your mom… she’s wonderful.”

“Then you’re a lot like Andy’s dad,” whispered Dylan.

“Like Andy’s dad?”

“I mean you’re a lot like I think anyone’s dad should be like,” confessed Dylan and Oliver thought his heart was going to explode. He hugged the boy and smiled softly.

“I’m flattered,” he said and grinned, but Dylan just looked at him sadly.

“Do you think she left?”

“What do you mean? Who left?” asked Oliver, hugging him.

“Mom. Left me,” whispered Dylan, truly terrified. “I was so rude! And I ran away, I argued with her, she got mad and she left!” Dylan wasn’t silently crying anymore, his loud sobs were heard in the whole gym, his tiny body shook as he cried. “Where can I go now? Dad doesn’t want me, granny lives far away…” The rest of his words weren’t understandable, but Oliver felt his own hot tears falling down. He wasn’t sure if he felt for the boy or was worried about Felicity more.

“Dylan, Dylan listen to me!” he said, trying to keep his voice steady. “Mom would never leave you. Do you understand? No matter how rude you are, she loves you unconditionally… You’ll never be alone, you have me now. I’ll take care of you, okay? We’ll go check if your mom’s home, come on,” said Oliver, getting up. He quickly wiped the tears with his sleeve, just like he used to do when he was a boy and Dylan did the exact same thing. Oliver knew that Felicity was not at home, but he hoped that some action would calm Dylan. “Here, take my phone and call Tommy, he’s 4 on speed dial, tell him you’re Dylan and ask if he heard from Fe…”

“Mr. Queen?”

“…licity. Yeah?”

“Someone’s calling,” said Dylan and buckled up in Oliver’s car.

“Who?”

“It’s just a number,” said Dylan and handed the phone to its owner.

“Hello? Yes…uh…where? Is it bad? I understand. Please tell her that her son is with me, we’re on the way.” Oliver ended the call and sighed with relief. “Dylan, we’re going to see your mom now, she’s waiting for us in the hospital.”

“Hospital? What’s wrong with mom?” asked Dylan and nervously stirred in his seat.

“She’s going to be fine,” assured Oliver. “You know, she’s been coughing lately?”

“Yeah, I know…”

“It’s pneumonia. It’s pretty bad, but now she’s being taken care of,” explained Oliver. He was very nervous himself, but tried to act calm for Dylan’s sake. This child didn’t need any more stress. He’s had enough for the past few days. “She’s taking antibiotics and she needs to rest a lot…also she can’t stress so…”

“I will be polite!” said Dylan loudly. “I promise, I swear I will be polite, I will never argue or run away or…eat more ice cream than mom lets me!” Dylan was crying again and Oliver couldn’t do much, he only assured him once again that Felicity was going to be okay. By saying it out loud he reassured himself too.

“I believe you. And Dylan? It’s Oliver. Just Oliver,” he said and the boy smiled at him. The sincere smile and the relief on Dylan’s face made Oliver a little calmer. Felicity was going to be okay and this story will really get a happy ending.

“Be quiet, mom could be asleep,” warned Oliver before Dylan ran into Felicity’s room.

“Dylan!” Oliver heard Felicity’s happy shout and he smiled instantly. When he saw his girlfriend and her son his heart melted. Felicity was laying on the bed hooked up to lots of tubes and Dylan was already beside her on the bed, hugging her tightly, whispering his declarations of not being rude anymore and apologising for everything he had ever done wrong. Felicity was just laughing and coughing at the same time, hugging Dylan closely to herself. “It’s okay Dylan, it’s okay, mommy’s here now… Oliver, thank you, thank you so much!”

“Hey,” said Oliver when he walked up to the bed, “you don’t have to thank me, not ever. But… you could apologise for scaring your two favourite men, you know?” he asked and smiled at her. Oliver leaned down and kissed her cheek.

“Yeah, you scared us mom!” repeated Dylan. “And I’m so so so sorry for scaring you yesterday! I knew I was rude, I know I shouldn’t have run to…you know…”

“Yes, baby, you did scare me, but now just please promise me you will never ever run away again…” pleaded Felicity.

“I promise!”

“Then it’s all going to be fine,” whispered Felicity and reached her hand to catch Oliver’s. He immediately took her hand and squeezed in reassurance.

“What happened, Felicity?” he asked and carefully sat on the edge of her hospital bed.

“I passed out,” she said with a sigh. “Apparently I’ve had anaemia for a long time and pneumonia…for a few days,” she explained. “I came here around noon and I’ve just woken up, that’s why they haven’t called you sooner. The first thing I did after waking up was to ask the nurse to call you.”

“It’s okay, you need to rest now,” said Oliver and cursed himself for not forcing her to going to the doctor earlier. “Did you eat anything?”

“My food is somewhere up there,” she said pointing at the IV bags. “As well as some nice drinks with vitamins and antibiotics and probably painkillers and maybe some extra…things…”

“You should eat a little something before falling asleep, okay?” Oliver pulled some money out of his pocket and gave them to Dylan. “Buy mom a granola bar and get yourself whatever you want, there’s a small bar right around the corner.”

“Thanks, I’ll be right back mommy,” said Dylan and kissed his mom’s cheek before running out to the corridor that lead to the bar.

“Felicity, love of my life…” started Oliver playfully.

“Hmm?”

“Can I please get you moved to the private room?” asked Oliver and his girlfriend laughed.

“No! I worked very hard to get my insurance, let me use it this one time,” she said. “How’s Dylan?”

“He’s well, I think. He got a little scared, but I think it was…necessary,” confessed Oliver.

“Uh, it’s so wrong, but you’re right,” admitted Felicity. “He’s a great boy, Oliver. He really is. I know what it’s like when your own father doesn’t want you, I behaved in the same way actually. I don’t want you to think that he…”

“Mom, they have plain granola, apple granola, peach, cranberry and plum granola…” Dylan appeared in the door of the hospital room and looked at his mom questioningly.

“Peach for me, please,” answered Felicity with a soft smile.

“Oliver, what should I buy for you?” asked the boy, who was a little overexcited by the given task.

“Surprise me,” smiled Oliver and Dylan ran out again. “Getting back to Dylan, I know he is a great kid. I truly know so.” Oliver leaned down and kissed Felicity again.

“‘Oliver’?”

“Yeah?”

“I meant ‘Oliver?’ as in you let him call you Oliver?” wondered Felicity. It seemed like she had been passed out for ages! So much had changed…

“Are you okay with that?” he wanted to make sure.

“Yes,” she said and pulled herself up to hug Oliver. “He left a letter,” she added after a short while.

“Who?”

“Cooper. He had to slide it under the door. It’s in my purse in the deposit…asked the nurse to bring it, but…it’s probably going to take some time. Can I use your phone to call mom? She’s my emergency contact, she must be worried,” said Felicity and in the same moment Dylan ran back into the room holding three granola bars.

“I bought the same kind for all of us!” he said excitedly and jumped onto his mom’s hospital bed.

“That’s great!” laughed Felicity and coughed a few times. “We’ll call Granny, okay?” she told Dylan and hugged the boy against her. Meanwhile the nurse brought Felicity’s purse from the deposit and yelled at Oliver and Dylan to get out, but Oliver managed to convince her to let them stay. Or maybe Dylan did that by telling his sad story about how much he worried about his mom earlier that day.

Felicity woke up in the middle of the night, the small lamp on her nightstand was turned on. She reached to her purse and pulled out the letter that she was anxious to read.

“Dear Felicity,  
Since the first day I saw you I fell in love with you. You were standing by your locker, smiling shyly at the passing people. I liked to think that I was the only one who noticed you. We were young, too young. Or maybe I was. When you told me you were pregnant I panicked. I was so stressed about the scholarship at MIT… I know it doesn’t justify my actions, I know you had a scholarship too and that you deserved it way more than I did. You were so smart, you’d graduate in two years without even studying, that’s how smart you are, genius I might say. So when you said you were pregnant I did the most stupid thing in my life, something that I regretted, regret and will always regret. I wanted to free myself from the responsibility, I guess I didn’t want to lose my chance… So yes, I told everyone you had been cheating on me. I said so much shit about you that I can’t even remember exactly. When I realised what I’d done it was too late already. You quit school, the expression on your face haunts me every single day. I wanted to try again, that’s why I showed up that day when Dylan was born. I hoped to make it better, but the guilt was too much. I couldn’t think straight, I knew what I did to you, I knew I ruined your life, or at least I thought I did… When I saw you that day, and then next year, and next year, and next year, every year on Dylan’s birthday I didn’t see a person whose life was destroyed. I saw a strong young woman who has been dealing with the worst kinds of obstacles on her way, with the worst kind of people and that woman held her head up high. I don’t know what I want to say, I don’t know why I decided to write this letter. All I know is that I’m sorry. I made you walk away almost 8 years ago and I should never have come to you. You and Dylan would have been happy without me. I finally left leaving behind everyone and everything that I ever knew. I moved to Ireland, to run a small company that I’ve bought. Everything that I had in Central City (2 cars and an apartment) as well as my small house in Florida is yours. I wanted it to be Dylan’s, but he’s not 18 yet, besides you’d know better what to do with it. You can keep it, sell it, rent it…or anything that ever comes to your head. I hope you’ll accept the gifts. I know they don’t make up for anything, I do know that. I hope your relationship with Oliver is built on love and trust and that he is what you deserve. It’s great that Dylan sees a father figure in anyone after what I’ve done to him. This little boy is so like you! I love him so much! Don’t ever tell him that, let him forget me. I know he will, there’s nothing to remember. I wish you all the best.   
Cooper.”

Felicity closed her eyes, tears falling down her cheeks. She felt so strangely free… Dylan was sleeping, safe and sound by her side, his head snuggled against her chest, his tiny arms around her, as if he wanted to make sure that his mom wasn’t going anywhere.

“Felicity, are you okay?” whispered Oliver, concerned. He’d fallen asleep on the chair, refusing to go home. Now he was looking at his crying girlfriend, clearly worried.

“I’m good,” she whispered back. “Better than ever.” She gave him the letter. “Now it’s going to be okay, right?”

“Yes, it will,” admitted Oliver when he’d read it and smiled at her. He loved to see her without the crease between her eyebrows, so calm. “Now rest baby, we’ll be here when you wake up,” he promised and stood up from the chair to kiss her goodnight once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end :( Wait for an epilogue (i don’t know when I’ll have time to write it :/ it will be a short chapter but still) THANK YOU FOR READING ONCE AGAIN!!! YOU’RE THE BEST!!! I LOVE YOU!!! :))) THE BEST READERS I COULD WISH FOR!


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone, I'm sorry, I know it's been forever, but that's the short epiloque that I promised, so you could see how Felicity's, Oliver's and Dylan's life looks now. I hope you'll enjoy! I would like to thank you for the great comments that this story got, for all the support and good thoughts that you were sending my way :) I would like to thank my betas and other people that talked to me about this fanfic and shared their ideas. THANK YOU!!!  
> (no beta this time, I'm sorry)

"Danny, please give me your foot" sighed Dylan and rolled his eyes when his little brother laughed and waved his hands. 

"Abla" he babbled and put his toe into his mouth.

"Yuck! Come one, Dan, this little sock goes on Danny's litttle foot..." Dylan jumped when his brother screamed loudly. "Okay, I give up" he announced. Felicity walked out of the bathroom with a bottle of mascara in her hand. 

"Is it that difficult?" she asked, put her black high heels on and walked up to the closest mirror. "Oliver! Oliver, are you ready?" She yelled, but Oliver was already running down the stairs. 

"Ready, what do I do?" He asked and hummed under his breath, admiring his beautiful wife who was done with her eyelashes, now busy with applying the lipstick. She has waited for this day since her 10th birthday, to be graduating MIT. Now, after she got two beautiful boys and a wonderful husband came the time to accomplish her dreams. When she first thought of going to MIT she didn't know that it will be such a difficult path, full of obstacles and disapointments. She didn't expect Dylan, she didn't expect Oliver and Danny, but ow she knew that she would never trade with anyone for an easier life, because she was happy now. And so were her boys. Oliver was now working as a PE teacher at the same primary school, Dylan was a decent student and an awesome football player, and Danny... Danny was a sweet 8 month old child who happened to be an expected result of Oliver's and Felicity's wedding night. This time she didn't freak out, she continued doing her master degrees in computer science and cyber security, Oliver was always supporting her, like he promised he would. 

"Please dress Danny up," she said and went back to the bathroom to fix a flaw in her makeup that only she has seen. 

"Danny," chanted Oliver. "It's an important day for your mommy today, you know? Be good and let me put your socks," Oliver knew he was going to lose miserably, because Danny didn't share his father's love for socks. He was kicking happily, his little feet high up. Everytime Oliver tried to catch his son's foot, Danny was wiggling and shouting happily, babbling nonsense. 

"What would you guys do without me?" Wondered Felicity, who was leaning against the doorframe, watching her three boys with a smile. "Would you let him go barefoot?" She walked up to her younger son and quickly managed to put his socks on. "Come on, my handsome little man, it's not so warm yet so do not pull these off," she said and picked him up. "You don't like shoes, do you, sweetie?" Danny babbled and Felicity laughed, pretending that Dan said something meaningful. "I think you can go without shoes, what do you think Oliver?"

"Since you have to be carried around, my prince, you can go without shoes," decided Oliver and pulled out his phone. "Everyone ready? Time for a family photo in the most important day for mommy! Everyone say 'cheese'!" Felicity hugged Dylan and held Danny closer to herself and Oliver took a few photos, all four of them smiling widely, even Danny knew what to do. 

"Come on, everybody to the car, or you'll be late," announced Oliver. 

"Oliver, wait." Felicity turned to face the boys. "You keep saying that it's the most important day ever and don't get me wrong, it is important for me because my childhood dream is coming true, but I wanted you to know that the three of you are more important to me than anything. I know I have been stressed out lately and I was... kind of mean and not in a friendly mood so I'm sorry," she said. 

"Honey, we knew you were stressed about the graduation, we know you only behave like a monster when you think you have a reason, but me and Dylan learnt how to deal with it so..."

"What?" Felicity was now looking at them with her brows furrowed. 

"Uh..." Oliver and Dylan looked at each other, now clearly confused. "I think I'll pass..."

"Good, because you're walking on thin ice, mister, I was talking about the dog, you know?"

"Do we... do we have to do this now?" Asked Oliver looking at his watch. 

"Yes. Dylan, I agree, dad can get you a dog. Or Oliver... I'm sorry, I'm not following what you two decided, so yeah, let's go so I can graduate and catch up on my family life." Said Felicity and started walking to the car with Danny wiggling in her arms. Oliver smiled and walked out of their house after Dylan who was jumping happily.

"Have you heard? I can get a dog!" He squealed and Oliver laughed. 

"We can get a dog! She finally agreed," he sighed in relief. He and Dylan couldn't count the times they made fancy breakfast to convince her. The past three years were difficult for her. Besides going to MIT she still wanted to work at Verdant, not listening to Oliver's assurance that they have more than a lot of money and she can focus only on studying. Oliver's beloved Felicity was stubborn and independent and he loved her for it, but it was difficult for him to watch her work, study and take care of her family. She slowed down when she was pregnant, so Oliver and Dylan immediately knew that the new baby is going to be on their side. 

"Do you think she will be mad about the Oliver - dad thing?" Asked Dylan uncertainly. 

"What? I'm sure se won't be!" Responded Oliver. "She said it's your decision, whatever you choose is good. We've talked about this, right?"

"Yeah, but you won't be mad either?" Dylan wanted to make sure. He knew his dad and the memories he had weren't the best. He knew that Danny would start calling Oliver 'dad', but he couldn't bring himself to it. One day he would just explain everything to Danny, or start calling Oliver 'dad' too. 

"I won't be," promised Oliver. "I love you, you know that, right? It doesn't matter you're not really my son."

"I love you too," said Dylan and they both walked to the car, from where Felicity was watching them through happy tears that shone in her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU once again! You're the best! ~missafairy

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading :) Don't be shy to message me if you have any questions.
> 
> My tumblr - missfsmoak :)


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